Instructional Designer Resume Example & Writing Guide

What should your instructional designer resume include?

Instructional designers are almost always hired to design course materials teachers can use to run lessons for their students. Because of that, your instructional designer resume should describe the kinds of course materials you specialize in, such as digital resources, virtual labs, etc. Your resume document should also list the types of clients you’ve worked with (schools, corporations, nonprofits, etc) and the academic fields you know how to teach.

Why use this instructional designer resume example?

Even if you’re writing your resume from scratch, the sample resume below is a great example of how to describe your instructional design experience and show recruiters that you’re right for their job. The text of this sample resume, for instance, is full of useful keywords that’ll grab the attention of the hiring manager while achieving a high score in the company’s applicant tracking system.

The three main sections of this sample resume are carefully designed so recruiters can easily find the information they need. The summary section has a space below the job title where you can list your specialities as an instructional designer. Additionally, the sample’s professional summary and areas of expertise sections both have a bullet-point list structure that divides your information into short, easy-to-read chunks for the recruiter’s convenience.

The experience and accomplishments section of this resume also has a layout that makes your background information more accessible. In the italicized sentence below each job entry’s header, you can summarize your past job’s primary responsibility. In the paragraph below that, you describe your job’s secondary responsibility. The selected accomplishments sub-section for each job entry lets you list stand-out achievements such as promotions or completing complex projects. The education and credentials sections at the end of this resume takes a similar approach with its layout, giving you specific subsections where you can list university degrees, certificates from private institutions, and software proficiencies.

Which key skills are relevant to an instructional designer resume?

Since instructional design is a field of education, instructional designer resumes should always contain skills that show you understand the educational process (proficiency with modern learning methodologies, experience with professional mentorship, etc). Many  instructional designers are called on to create digital learning resources, so your resume should list any skills you have related to programming and/or software development.

Recruiters especially love to see these skills on instructional designer resumes:

• Course content development

• Virtual lab environment design

• Virtual lab storyboarding

• Development process standards

• Courseware / training delivery

• SDLC methodologies

• Training partner management

• Platform / infrastructure administration

• Team leadership & mentoring

• Data analysis

• Graphic designer software proficiency

• Adult learning theory proficiency