Jill DavidianFounder, Learning Strategy & Design. 20+ years in instructional design.
Build the skills and portfolio hiring managers look for,
one step at a time.
Instructional designers come from classrooms, training rooms, campuses and plenty of other fields. Find the one closest to your situation and see what your transition into ID looks like.
Not sure which one fits? Start Here walks through all six.
The free workshop, Become an AI-Ready Instructional Designer, is four nights with Jill on how AI has changed the work we do as IDs, how AI has changed hiring, what employers look for now, and what it takes to get hired. No experience with AI is necessary. Live on Zoom, with replays through Nov 17.
Each of them graduated from the Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA). Before ID, they taught K-12, taught college, trained adults or wrote software. Most people come into this field as a second career.
Morgan StevensScience Teacher → Instructional Developer V, Core4ce
May ChangOnline College Instructor → Program/Project Manager, Sr. Learning Designer, Lam ResearchEach company here hired at least one AIDA grad who changed careers into instructional design. More than 40 companies have hired two or more.
Jill Davidian has spent 20+ years in instructional design. As an instructional design manager at BP, a large global oil company, she ran the ethical and inclusive leadership programs for supervisors through vice presidents across North and South America, and managed the large teams that designed and delivered that training. She read a lot of resumes and portfolio samples in that seat. She knows what makes a hiring manager stop scrolling, because she was the one scrolling. She's also worked full time at Discover, and as a contractor she's designed training for clients like Deloitte, Chevron and Hilton.
She built Learning Strategy & Design to hand you what she wished every applicant had: a clear path, real feedback on real work, and people who know the hiring side because she sat on it. Instructional design is how she's been able to travel to and work from 80+ countries as a single mom. She builds with AI herself, from apps to full interactive courses, so what AIDA teaches about AI comes from doing it.
Pick the one that sounds like you.
Maybe ChatGPT suggested it, or someone you know made the move and loves the work. But you're not sure what it involves yet. You really want to learn more about what IDs do and if you'd be good at it. Take the quiz first. In about three minutes, you'll see how much of an ID you already are.
You've decided. You may be considering a certificate or a master's. You're not really sure how to get started, translate your experience and build the skills you need to get hired. Hiring managers look at your portfolio. The free workshop, Become an AI-Ready Instructional Designer, Nov 9 to 12, shows you what goes into one they take seriously, so you know what you're building toward.
You've built a sample or two, maybe with a YouTube tutorial open in the next tab. Or you've been applying, and the thanks-but-no-thanks emails come back with no reasons attached. Run your portfolio through the Portfolio Scorecard to see where it stands.
You want the steps in order and someone reviewing your work, or you've tried it on your own and want help this time. AIDA is a self-paced certification with weekly support: the core ID skills, AI and the tools in order, a review from a senior instructional designer on every portfolio piece until it's approved, and career services for your job search.
Maybe it's a sick day without five hours of sub plans, a lunch break away from the training room, or a year that doesn't hang on whether the adjunct contract renews. Pick the one that pulls at you. Every quote here is from a real AIDA grad.
Your resume shows where you've been, translated into instructional design language. Your portfolio shows what you can do. When a hiring manager opens a sample that looks like finished training for a real company, they can see you can do the work without the job title. That's how a portfolio replaces experience.
It only works if the work is vetted. Nobody publishes the first draft of an essay or a book. Someone else reviews it, and you revise. Most people moving into ID never get that expert review, which is why Jill built the Applied ID Portfolio Method™.
The Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA) is built on it: five stages from zero instructional design experience to your first ID job, with a senior instructional designer reviewing every portfolio piece until it's approved. The LEAD AI Framework runs through every stage, so you learn AI alongside the fundamentals.
Real stories from career changers who made the move, what instructional designers actually do, and the how-to for each step of the transition, from the skills and the portfolio to the job search and AI. Short episodes you can finish on the drive in.
Listen to the Podcast