Instructional Designer: Resume Sample & Writing Guide [20+ Tips]

Instructional Designer Resume Sample

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Sample Instructional Designer Resume—See more templates and create your resume here.

Looking for other guides for the design industry? Check these out:

• Graphic Designer Resume
• Web Designer Resume
• Game Designer Resume 

You’re more into educating? Here’s a selection of dedicated guides:

• Teacher Resume
• High School Teacher Resume
• Art Teacher Resume 

Now, here’s how to write an instructional designer resume that will help you rise above the noise and land your dream job.

1. Choose the Best Format for Your Instructional Designer Resume

Instructional designers identify knowledge gaps of a targeted audience and fill those gaps via designing games, creating training materials, or even developing entire curriculums to achieve better learning outcomes.

You’re a scroll-down away from learning how to write the best instructional designer resume. But first—

Picture this:

There are 217,700 candidates for instructional designer jobs out there. That makes you a needle in a haystack.

The good news—

You can make your instructional designer resume magnetize.

Here’s how:

• Start with a good header for your resume. Ensure it includes your name and contact info.
• Create a clear order of resume sections to make it reader-friendly.
• Choose a good resume format. Generally, the reverse chronological works best if you have achievements and professional experience to showcase. 
• Pick a legible font to create a great reading experience. Don’t go with anything fancy. Good fonts for resume include Calibri, Helvetica, and Georgia.
• Make friends with white space. The hiring manager will thank you.
• Save your resume document as PDF and skip .doc. PDFs don’t scramble across different platforms.

2. Write an Instructional Designer Resume Objective or Summary

Here comes the shocker:

Recruiters take an average of 6 seconds to scan a resume. 

If nothing grabs their attention, the resume lands in the bin.

But—

There’s a trick to make the recruiter stick to your resume like superglue:

Write a resume profile. It’s a snappy two-three liner that pulls the recruiter into the meat and potatoes of your effective instructional design resume.

Here’s a rule of thumb:

• If you’ve done instructional design for 2+ years and know what flowcharting is, go with a resume summary. It will introduce you as an experienced instructional designer giving proof of your accomplishments through the use of a numbered past win or two.

• If you’re new to the game, stick to resume objective. The objective statement informs the hiring manager of your career goals as an instructional designer.

Pro Tip: Write your heading statement last, as you will change it again and again as you complete the rest of your resume. 

3. Create the Perfect Instructional Designer Job Description for a Resume

Picture a recruiter—Lucy.

She picks a random instructional designer resume to skim it.

Responsible for… Was part of… Collaborated with…

That’s as fun as the hierarchical analysis.

Delete.

Finally, Lucy picks your instructional designer resume template, AND her pupils dilate with joy.

Why?

Because you gave her specifics. 

So—

Here’s how to write the perfect instructional design job description:

• List your current/latest job first and move back.
• Cite your job titles, company names, locations, and dates worked.
• Use a three-to-five bullet point list to spotlight your key duties.
• Kickstart each bullet point with resume action verbs. Words like managed, coordinated, monitored, performed, etc. work best.
• Use numbers throughout. If you're stuck, think how many people you managed, how big of budgets you handled, etc.
• Tailor your resume to each position you apply for. It’ll help you please the Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

4. Make Your Instructional Designer Education Section Great

Here’s the thing:

You need a master’s to land a job in instructional design.

But—

Don’t just dump a fancy degree into your instructional designer resume and move on.

A well-crafted education section can help you stand out and knock out the competition.

Here’s a bulletproof formula:

• If you have 5+ years of experience under the belt, list your master’s, school name and location, and graduation year.
• If you’ve just learned what ADDIE is, list your GPA (if upwards of 3.5), extracurricular activities, academic achievements, and relevant coursework

Pro Tip: If you’re writing your first job resume ever, put the education section over your work history for the most impact.

5. Highlight Your Instructional Designer Skills

Your instructional designer skills is what the employer is after.

And—

Listing relevant skills in a separate section not only makes your abilities stand out. It will also please the ATS (Applicant Tracking System).

Here’s a sample list of good skills to put on an instructional designer resume:

Instructional Designer Resume Skills

• Problem-solving
• Facilitation
• Innovation
• Adaptability

• Adobe Captivate
• Web 2.0
• Sharepoint
• Background learning
• VISIO
• Epic EHR
• SCORM
• Articulate Studio
• LMS
• Curriculum Design
• Needs Analysis
• Learning Management
• Distance Learning
• Mobile Learning
• Blended Learning
• Employee Training
• AGILE Instructional Design
• Audacity
• Problem Solving Skills
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Presentation Skills
• Time Management Skills
• Interpersonal Skills
• Decision Making Skills
• Excellent Communication
• Management Skills
• Technical Skills
• Leadership Skills
• Teamwork Skills
• Creative Thinking Skills

Do you need to cram all these skills into your instructional design resume?

No.

Scan the job ad, and pick the ones the employer wants the most. Include a mix of both soft skills and hard skills to give them the entire picture.

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.

Create my resume now

When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

6. Add Other Sections to Your Instructional Designer Resume

Remember Lucy?

She’s still not sure if you’re the cream of the crop.

So—you need to convince her.

Best way to do it?

Add extra sections to your instructional design resume to spotlight more than just your professional side:

• Language skills
• Certifications
• Volunteer experience
• Hobbies

7. Attach an Instructional Designer Resume Cover Letter

Do you need a cover?

Some say you do and others that you don’t.

Here’s the truth:

A whopping 49% of recruiters expect an instructional designer cover letter even if they didn’t say it in the job ad.

So—

Unless you want to sabotage your application success rate, you’d better write a cover letter.

Here’s how:

• Learn about cover letter formatting rules.
• Start a cover letter with your successes in previous roles.
• Show how your instructional design experience will translate into their success.
• Plant a call-to-action in the cover letter closing.

This is it!

This is how you make a job-winning resume for instructional designer positions.

Are you a career changer looking into starting a career in instructional design? Need some help with a resume profile? Drop us a line below. We’ll be happy to help!