Here are the keywords and skills that appear most frequently on recent Instructional Designer job postings. In other words, these are the most sought after skills by recruiters and hiring managers. Go to Sample Templates ↓ below to see how to include them on your resume.
Remember that every job is different. Instead of including all keywords on your resume, identify those that are most relevant to the job you're applying to. Use the free Targeted Resume tool to help with this.
Does your resume contain all the right skills? Paste in your resume in the AI Resume Scan ↓ section below and get an instant score.
Paste your resume below and our AI will identify which keywords are missing from your resume from the list above (and what you need to include). Including the right keywords will help you get past Applicant Tracking Systems (i.e. resume screeners) which may scan your resume for keywords to see if you're a match for the job.
Go through the Instructional Designer posting you're applying to, and identify hard skills the company is looking for. For example, skills like E-Learning, Blended Learning and Articulate Storyline are possible skills. These are skills you should try to include on your resume.
The following word cloud highlights the most popular keywords that appear on Instructional Designer job descriptions. The bigger the word, the more frequently it shows up on employer's job postings. If you have experience with these keywords, include them on your resume.
Here are examples of proven resumes in related jobs and industries, approved by experienced hiring managers. Use them as inspiration when you're writing your own resume. You can even download and edit the resume template in Google Docs.
UX designer is a role that blends visual design skills, writing, coding, and research. As a UX designer, you’ll be designing apps, building prototypes, and performing testing and analytics as well as collaborating with clients and other teams. A resume that emphasizes your hard skills and hands-on experience is your key to landing the perfect role.
Keep your resume focused on your most relevant work experience. Recruiters want to see your UX design experience, not your years of working in an unrelated field. Let your experience speak for itself by using action-oriented bullet points highlighting your accomplishments and keep additional information, like volunteer work or educational awards, to a minimum.
You don’t need a massive list of skills — prioritizing a few of the most relevant skills is the best way to stand out. Choose skills like wireframing, prototyping, and interaction design, that you’ll actually be using on the job. Breaking your list of skills into categories is another great way of making a longer list more readable.
As a senior graphic designer or graphic design director, you’ll be taking on high-level responsibilities and overseeing an entire department. Your resume needs to show significant experience as a graphic designer, as well as the capacity to lead a team to success. Make sure you’re emphasizing past leadership roles you’ve held as well as a commitment to ensuring the overall success of a company.
If you want to land a senior role, you’ll need to show a steady pattern of career growth. If you’ve landed a promotion that represents a significant increase in responsibilities, you can list the positions separately under the same company heading. If the job title alone doesn’t make it clear that this was a promotion, your bullet points will.
It’s always a good idea to use the exact title of the job you’re applying for on your resume. If you’ve held a position with the same responsibilities but under a different name, or if the titles are often used interchangeably, you can list both job titles at the start of your resume.
E-learning designers make virtual learning programs for learners. Typically, they first understand the learning needs of the student population and then tailor a syllabus around it. Part of the responsibilities of eLearning designers includes determining the correct media for learning and administering educational material accordingly. Experience in adult learning is usually a desired quality by employers. A 10-year stint in a particular profession justifies the opinion that you are a subject matter expert in your line of work. Therefore, as this resume illustrates, focus on showcasing your technical experience. If possible, demonstrate your top achievements to help you explain why you are the best candidate.
Make your resume stand out by giving as much information as possible. Instead of simply writing "Collaborated with others to identify training needs of a certain company," write "collaborated with 18 experts and 5 members of staff to identify RW Inc., training needs." Use numbers, job titles, organizations' names, dates, and locations to show hiring managers you know your thing.
It might be challenging to grab the attention of hiring managers in the 6-7 seconds they skim through your resume, but it's doable. Here is what to do: if you've been an e-Learning designer for 5+ years and understand what flowcharting is, use a resume summary to introduce yourself as an experienced professional with proof of accomplishments.
A graphic designer communicates ideas through visual concepts. Their role is to conceptualize and develop a layout that communicates what stakeholders need to show. Graphic design can be used for many purposes, including captivating, informing, or inspiring consumers. That’s why their work is often used in advertising, social media channels, or reports. To become a graphic designer you should ideally have a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design or a related field. However, it’ll depend on your potential employer’s requirements. There are many high-talented graphic designers out there with non-traditional training. Yet, you should consider one thing; highlight your technical and creative skills on your resume.
User experience (UX) is the way users interact with a particular product or design. This design should be accessible, usable, and appealing. This is particularly important when you’re working or trying to get a job in tech: recruiters want to know whether you can apply your offline skills to the online world. Even though both developers and graphic designers are not related, they can work together on integrating a design into web/software development.
Branding and identity play a huge role in graphic design. It’s a combination of visual elements that represent a company’s identity. It is the way they want to portray themselves to the consumers.
A creative graphic designer has a strong background in art and visual design. They create visual concepts to communicate a brand’s message to its consumers. They usually work in advertising agencies, marketing companies, or independently as freelance designers. If you want to reflect your expertise in your resume, it’s a good idea to showcase some certifications. These provide a better idea of your abilities and experience in the graphic design industry.
Creative graphic designers use multiple tools like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, etc. It is a good idea to mention those programs you use for developing your projects in your skills section, or intertwined into your work experiences (e.g. Designed prototypes using Figma...). It’ll give recruiters a practical view of what your tool stack looks like and if it aligns with that of their product/graphic design teams.
Prototyping is an experimental process in which graphic designers propose a design idea to evaluate how end users would react to the final result. It is essentially a 'testing' phase, which helps reduce a company's risk of spending several weeks developing something that isn't usable or doesn't achieve the company's goals. Creative graphic designers should put experimentation at the heart of their work, and it's often useful to emphasize it in your resume. You could use the action verb, "Prototyped", in an example like "Prototyped 25+ designs by rapidly iterating with the client over 8 weeks...".
A UX designer is a technically inclined and creative professional who designs products that are enjoyable for the end customer to use. The UX designer’s main responsibility is to create efficient, engaging and aesthetically pleasing interfaces. They may work in a variety of industries from cellular phones to web page development. A UX designer will design all customer-facing applications, optimize applications for better efficiency, and make design recommendations to software teams. To land this role, you will need a college degree in graphic design, motion graphics, animation, or another similar field. This role requires a mix of artistic and technical skills. Hiring managers will look for someone with previous experience in roles such as illustrator, artist, or graphic designer. An ideal candidate will have considerable experience using key software tools such as Adobe Illustrator and InVision, as well as desired soft skills like color theory knowledge and creativity.
Though the UX designer is involved with the ‘front-end’ of an application, they must understand how design changes to the front end can change software requirements on the back end. Earning certifications in software engineering or computer sciences, and adding them to your resume, will show hiring managers you understand the crucial technical aspects of UX design.
Aesthetics are a key piece of any UX design. An application that is poorly organized or unpleasant to look at will not perform. For this reason, it’s important to showcase your artistic skills to land the role. You can make a portfolio of prior designs, or create some custom designs with the sole purpose of putting them in a portfolio.
Some popular Instructional Designer hard skills are Instructional Design, Articulate Storyline, E-Learning, Captivate, Learning Management Systems, ADDIE, Camtasia and Blended Learning.
Depending on the job you apply to, skills like Learning Management, Training Delivery, SnagIt, Distance Learning and Instructor-led Training can also be good to include on your resume.
While the keywords above are a good indication of what skills you need on your resume, you should try to find additional keywords that are specific to the job. To do this, use the free Targeted Resume tool. It analyzes the job you are applying to and finds the most important keywords you need on your resume.
It is personalized to your resume, and is the best way to ensure your resume will pass the automated resume filters.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
