Devlin Peck
So, you're wondering how to become an instructional designer. It's a smart question, and in 2026, it's a question that we need to answer realistically.
Instructional design is still a viable, well-paying career with strong work–life balance. However, the path into the field has changed. Hiring managers are more selective, portfolios are scrutinized more closely, and candidates are increasingly expected to demonstrate practical skills. This includes comfort with modern tools and AI-assisted workflows, not just theoretical knowledge.
This guide is designed for people who want a clear, up-to-date roadmap. It will help you understand what instructional designers actually do today, what skills employers now expect, and how to build a portfolio that makes you competitive in the current job market.
If you’re serious about transitioning into instructional design (not just exploring it casually), I recommend bookmarking this page and returning to it as you work through each step.
We’ll start by clarifying what an instructional designer is and what the role looks like in different settings. Then, we’ll walk through the specific steps required to build the skills and experience needed to land your first instructional design role.
If you prefer a video walkthrough of this process, I also cover how to become an instructional designer step-by-step in this YouTube video.
You've heard the term "instructional designer," but you're probably still wondering exactly what an instructional designer does.
Instructional designers create effective, engaging learning experiences. They draw on best practices from education, design, psychology, systems theory, and creative writing to create eLearning, face-to-face workshops, job aids, and other performance support solutions.
While trainers or teachers deliver instruction to a live audience, instructional designers work behind the scenes. Instructional designers collaborate with subject matter experts (SMEs) to design and often develop the learning experience, but they rarely deliver it to a live audience themselves.
Instructional designers report high job satisfaction, earn above-average salaries, and enjoy good work-life balance.
If this career aligns with your interests and you feel confident that you can learn the skillset (which we'll cover in this article), then you should definitely consider pursuing it.
Here are some additional facts that demonstrate why instructional design is a promising career:
That said, these outcomes are far more common for candidates who can demonstrate applied skills through a strong portfolio, rather than relying on credentials or experience alone.
Learn more about instructional design salaries in this short video:
In practice, the role “instructional designer” covers a wide range of responsibilities. Most commonly, instructional designers work with subject matter experts to analyze performance problems, write instructional content, create storyboards, and develop interactive learning experiences. They may also produce job aids, facilitator guides, slide decks, and other performance support materials.
That said, the day-to-day work of an instructional designer can vary significantly depending on the organization and role.
In corporate settings, instructional designers often spend much of their time building interactive eLearning using authoring tools. Turnaround times are typically fast, and processes are usually well-documented.
In higher education, instructional designers are more likely to collaborate closely with faculty, helping convert face-to-face courses into online formats or maintain existing courses. Rather than using rapid eLearning tools, higher ed designers often work directly within learning management systems such as Canvas or Blackboard.
Government instructional design roles often resemble one of these two models, depending on the organization and team.
Another distinction is whether an instructional designer works in-house for a single organization or for a vendor serving multiple clients.
In-house instructional designers support internal employees or customers at one company. Vendor-side instructional designers, on the other hand, develop learning solutions for multiple clients and are more likely to work within specialized roles. In these environments, analysis, design, and development may be handled by different team members.
In-house roles often require designers to wear multiple hats, sometimes including LMS administration and program evaluation.
Self-employed instructional designers may work on long-term contracts with a single organization or juggle multiple freelance clients. While this can offer flexibility and higher earning potential, it also requires running a small business — marketing services, managing contracts, handling taxes, and maintaining client relationships.
Full-time instructional designers avoid the business overhead but may trade some flexibility and earning potential for stability.
Some instructional designers report feeling a lack of purpose, particularly in environments where training is commissioned without first confirming whether learning is the right solution. In these cases, designers may be asked to produce content quickly to satisfy a requirement rather than solve a meaningful problem.
This doesn’t mean fulfilling instructional design roles don’t exist. They do. But finding them often requires a more intentional job search and a willingness to evaluate organizations carefully.
Instructional design tends to be a good fit for people who enjoy writing, working with technology, collaborating with others, and helping people learn more efficiently.
Many roles also offer solid work–life balance and competitive pay. If those factors matter to you and you’re comfortable working in a role that blends analysis, writing, design, and technology, then instructional design may be a strong fit.
In today’s market, hiring managers are not just looking for instructional designers who understand learning theory. They are looking for candidates who can apply that theory to solve real problems and demonstrate their thinking through concrete work.
Because many people are trying to enter the field, experience in a related role or a well-written résumé alone is rarely enough to stand out. Most hiring managers screen candidates quickly, often prioritizing portfolios and work samples over credentials.
What makes candidates competitive in 2026 is the ability to show how they:
In other words, hiring managers are evaluating evidence, not potential.
If you’d like to dive deeper into how hiring managers evaluate applicants, you can read the full instructional design hiring manager report, where 101 hiring managers share their perspectives.
In years past, instructional design portfolios that showed clean slides and basic interactivity were often enough to get hired.
Today, most hiring managers see dozens of those every week.
What stands out now is evidence of judgment:
The better that you can show how you used your judgment to solve real-world business problems with instructional design, the more valuable you will be to modern organizations.
We’ve also seen candidates land roles more quickly when they feature AI-powered projects in their portfolios, which suggests the industry is actively rewarding designers who can move quickly with modern tools.
Instructional designers who cannot demonstrate AI competency are having a harder time getting hired, and the industry seems to be doubling down in that direction.
In practice, this shows up in two distinct ways: how instructional designers work, as well as the deliverables that they produce.
Using ChatGPT isn’t enough to demonstrate that you’re using AI to its full potential. In 2026, hiring managers often want to hear how AI is part of your process.
For example:
Instructional designers who embed AI as a natural part of their workflow are able to output significantly more (and higher-quality) work than non-AI-augmented designers, and the market is noticing.
In 2026, candidates who feature AI-enabled learning experiences in their portfolios are consistently seeing stronger job search outcomes than those who do not.
For example, aspiring instructional designers who build Custom GPTs or Storyline 360 experiences with AI-powered characters tend to stand out in interviews and are often considered for higher-level or higher-paying roles earlier in their search.
If you’re choosing where to focus your effort on a new portfolio project this year, designing an AI-enabled learning experience is one of the highest-leverage ways to demonstrate modern instructional design skills.
Here’s what that can look like in practice:
One example of this comes from Catherine Schwebel, an instructional designer who built a custom GPT to support clinicians in a healthcare context.
That project helped her land a part-time AI instructional design role. Later, when applying for a full-time position, she created a custom GPT as part of the employer’s sample project request.
During the interview process, the hiring team explicitly referenced the custom GPT as a reason her work stood out…not just because it was “AI,” but because it demonstrated problem-solving, judgment, and an understanding of real-world constraints.
Once you know that instructional design is a good fit for you, the next step is building the skills and experience needed to be competitive in today’s job market.
The process itself hasn’t fundamentally changed. You still need to learn the core principles, practice them, and demonstrate your ability through a portfolio. What has changed is the level of execution expected.
Here’s a high-level overview of what it takes to become competitive for instructional design roles:
Below, I’ll walk through each step in detail and explain how to approach it in a way that reflects current hiring expectations.
Instructional design theory still matters. But in today’s market, hiring managers are not looking for candidates who can recite models from memory. They are looking for designers who can apply theory to real problems and explain their design decisions clearly.
As you review the models and principles below, focus less on memorization and more on how each one informs practical choices you might make when designing a learning experience or portfolio project.
If you're new to the world of instructional design, then ADDIE is the best place to start. ADDIE is an instructional design model that covers every part of the instructional design process.
More specifically, ADDIE is an acronym that stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.
Let's take a closer look at each phase in detail:
It's important to note that while ADDIE was originally designed for each phase to occur in order, that is no longer the reality (plus, the model has changed significantly since its original conception in the 1970s).
In practice, most instructional designers move fluidly between these phases rather than following them sequentially.
So, despite each phase fitting nicely into its own box on paper, the reality is that you should feel comfortable moving in and out of them as needed.
Gagne's nine events of instruction list nine events that should be addressed in any instructional intervention. These events serve as a good blueprint for designing training, especially if you're new to the field.
Robert Gagne completed this work in 1965, but his principles are built upon research that still holds strong today. Because of this, many lesson plans and eLearning approaches aim to satisfy each of Gagne's 9 events.
Let's take a closer look at each event:
As you can see, Gagne mapped out each element necessary for an effective instructional experience. These nine events do not need to occur in order, but doing so is often the most logical approach.
Many portfolio projects implicitly follow these events, even when designers aren’t labeling them explicitly. When you're designing learning, plan the experience with each of these events in mind and justify how you applied them in your process write-up (which we will explore further later).
You do not need to explicitly label these events in your public work, but you should be able to explain how your design supports attention, practice, feedback, and transfer.
Action mapping is a performance consulting approach to training design developed by Cathy Moore. It is used at many Fortune 500 companies, and it responds well to the needs of our time.
For example, many organizations spend large budgets to churn out training courses, but these courses rarely address real business or performance needs. As such, they waste the organization's budget that could have been spent on efforts that produce measurable results.
This is where action mapping comes in. It advocates identifying a clearly defined business goal, determining which high-priority actions employees must perform to achieve that goal, and then designing interventions to help employees perform those actions correctly.
By aiming to achieve a business goal, instructional design teams can better hold themselves accountable for the results that they produce. This is important in corporate settings where training is supposed to improve performance.
The other main benefit of Cathy Moore's approach is the action map itself. It keeps you focused on the actions that people need to perform on the job, not just the information that subject matter experts (SMEs) and other leaders think the employees should know.
You can learn more about action mapping in this video or on Cathy Moore's blog, but I highly recommend reading her entire book, Map It. (You can also read my full review of Map It.)
Approaches like action mapping are especially valuable in portfolios because they demonstrate that you can connect learning design to real performance outcomes.
Behaviorism focuses on observable, measurable behavior and how it is shaped through reinforcement. In instructional design, this shows up most often through incentives, feedback, and consequences tied to performance.
The most relevant concept for instructional designers is operant conditioning: the idea that behaviors are more likely to occur when they are reinforced and less likely to occur when they are discouraged. In practice, this influences decisions around feedback timing, rewards, completion criteria, and performance expectations.
You do not need to design instruction purely from a behaviorist perspective. However, understanding behaviorism helps you recognize why certain interventions rely heavily on metrics, incentives, or compliance-driven outcomes — and when those approaches may or may not be appropriate.
In portfolios and interviews, this shows up less as theory knowledge and more as intentional design choices, such as how feedback is structured or how success is defined.
Cognitive information processing theory focuses on how people take in, process, and store information. For instructional designers, the most practical takeaway is understanding that human attention and working memory are limited.
This is where cognitive load theory becomes especially important. When learning experiences include unnecessary content, excessive visuals, or competing information, learners become overloaded; this makes learning less effective, even when the material itself is accurate.
In practice, cognitive load theory influences decisions such as:
Strong instructional design often involves removing content, not adding more. Every element in a learning experience should serve a clear instructional or performance purpose.
Hiring managers rarely expect you to explain memory models in detail. They do expect you to design learning that feels clear, focused, and intentional (and to explain why you made those choices).
Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluation is widely referenced in learning and development, and many hiring managers expect instructional designers to be familiar with its four levels. You don’t need to treat it as a rigid checklist, but you should understand what each level represents and how it informs design decisions.
At a high level, the model outlines four ways to evaluate a learning initiative:
In practice, most organizations focus heavily on reaction and learning data, even though behavior and results are often far more indicative of real impact. As an instructional designer, this awareness should influence how you frame success and how you talk about your work (especially in interviews).
Hiring managers are less interested in whether you can recite the four levels from memory and more interested in whether you understand why behavior change and outcomes matter, even when they’re difficult to measure.
Richard Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning are especially relevant for instructional designers who design or develop eLearning. These principles focus on how people process words and visuals together, as well as how poor design choices can make learning harder than it needs to be.
While Mayer outlines twelve principles, the most important takeaway is that clarity matters more than decoration. For example:
In practice, Mayer’s principles reinforce the idea that every design element should serve a purpose. When instructional designers violate these principles...for example, by overcrowding screens, duplicating narration and text, or adding unnecessary animations, then learning suffers.
You don’t need to memorize every principle. What matters is being able to explain why your design choices support learning rather than distraction, especially when presenting portfolio work or walking through a project in an interview.
Writing clear learning objectives is a foundational skill for instructional designers. Objectives define what learners should be able to do as a result of the learning experience, and they guide nearly every design decision that follows.
Strong objectives are specific and measurable. Vague objectives such as “understand” or “learn” make it difficult to design effective practice activities or assessments, and they weaken your ability to explain your work to stakeholders. Instead, instructional designers typically use clear action verbs to describe observable outcomes.
That said, learning objectives are primarily a design tool, not a communication tool. Once objectives have guided your design decisions, you can translate them into more conversational language for learners. Overly formal “instructional design speak” often distracts from the experience rather than improving it.
Closely tied to objectives is instructional alignment. Alignment means that every piece of content, practice activity, assessment item, and visual directly supports one or more objectives. When alignment is strong, learning experiences feel focused and intentional. When alignment is weak, unnecessary content creeps in and learning effectiveness suffers.
In portfolios and interviews, instructional alignment often matters more than perfect objective wording. Hiring managers look for evidence that your designs are cohesive, purposeful, and free of extraneous detail — not whether you followed a textbook template.
The goal of learning instructional design theory is not to memorize models or terminology. It’s to develop a shared language, recognize patterns, and make intentional design decisions that you can explain and defend.
You don’t need to master every theory upfront. What matters is understanding the core frameworks well enough to apply them in real projects (especially portfolio work) and deepen your knowledge over time as you encounter new challenges.
With that foundation in place, the next step is building the practical skills and evidence that hiring managers actually evaluate.
Most instructional design roles require some level of technical proficiency. This isn't because tools are the entire job, but because designers are often expected to turn ideas into tangible learning experiences.
The goal at this stage is not to master every platform or become a technical specialist. It is to develop enough technical fluency to build, iterate on, and explain the portfolio projects that hiring managers actually evaluate.
Historically, the factor that has helped me and my students consistently stand out most is the ability to combine a strong theoretical foundation with practical technical skills. That combination makes you an especially effective one-person instructional designer, and it matters even more in the age of AI.
For many corporate instructional design roles, you'll likely need to design and develop interactive eLearning using a rapid authoring tool. Platforms like Articulate Storyline 360 are commonly used because they allow designers to create custom interactions, branching scenarios, and practice activities without writing code.
Rise 360 is becoming increasingly popular, too. It's part of the same Articulate suite and it empowers instructional designers to build information-based eLearning very quickly.
You don’t need to know every feature of every tool. What matters is being able to:
In other words, the tool serves the design...not the other way around.
The best way to learn Articulate Storyline 360 is to download the free trial and start building. There are plenty of free resources online as well as structured learning experiences that will get you up to speed quickly.
Instructional designers are rarely responsible for creating original visual assets from scratch. However, they are often expected to adapt, modify, and integrate visual elements into learning experiences.
Basic proficiency with a vector or image-editing tool allows you to:
This skill supports clarity and professionalism in portfolio work, even when time and budget are limited.
Common tools for editing visuals include Canva, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.
Some instructional designers use prototyping or video tools to:
These tools can improve workflow and polish, but they are not required for every role. Use them when they meaningfully support your design process or portfolio narrative, not simply to add more tools to your résumé.
The top prototyping tool right now is called Figma: it lets you create your layouts before worrying about programming in a tool like Storyline 360. Popular video editing tools include Camtasia, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro.
And if you want to create educational videos quickly with a cohesive look-and-feel (without needing to find graphics) explore Vyond.
In today’s environment, instructional designers are increasingly expected to be comfortable using AI as part of their workflow.
This does not mean outsourcing thinking or important design decisions. It means using AI intentionally to:
In portfolios and interviews, what matters is being able to explain how AI supported your process, not which tools you used.
Incorporating AI into learning experiences is also an incredible way to differentiate your portfolio and get hired quickly, as we've seen from recent Peck Academy grads.
Some skills can further differentiate you, especially in data-driven or technically complex environments. These include:
These skills are valuable, but not required to get started. Treat them as optional depth, not entry-level expectations.
And if I had to choose a single optional skill to make a massive impact on the industry, I'd suggest diving into agentic coding (also known as "vibe coding"). This allows you to design complete software solutions without needing to code (although you will need to build a technical foundation).
If this list of tech feels shorter than expected, that’s intentional.
You do not need to learn everything at once. Focus on developing the technical skills required to support strong portfolio projects, then deepen your toolkit over time based on the roles you pursue.
The next step is making those skills visible.
It’s common for new instructional designers to assume that as long as the instruction is sound and the experience functions correctly, visual design is secondary. In practice, that’s rarely true.
Visual design strongly influences how quickly content is understood, how easy it is to navigate, and how professional the work feels at first glance. Hiring managers often form an initial impression of a portfolio in seconds, and visual clarity plays a significant role in whether they continue reviewing a project in depth.
This does not mean instructional designers need to become graphic designers or create flashy visuals. In fact, overly decorative design often hurts learning. What matters is clear, intentional composition.
In instructional design, visual design should:
If a learning experience feels confusing or cluttered, even strong instructional decisions may not have the desired impact.
A basic understanding of four visual design principles is usually enough to significantly improve the quality of instructional materials:
These principles apply across formats: from eLearning slides and job aids to PDFs and presentation decks.
In portfolios, visual design is evaluated implicitly. Hiring managers are rarely analyzing design principles directly, but they do notice when layouts feel inconsistent, cluttered, or difficult to follow.
Strong visual design:
Weak visual design can undermine otherwise strong work, and it will make it much harder to get hired. When your work looks polished and professional, however, it signals to hiring managers that you're a serious applicant (and it will likely lead to them spending much more time on your site).
You don’t need advanced design skills to be competitive. You do need to ensure that your work communicates clearly and looks intentional.
If your layouts are clean, consistent, and easy to navigate, you’ve done enough.
Ask yourself: "if a hiring manager looks at my work, will they be excited about work of similar quality going live at their organization?"
In today’s job market, your instructional design portfolio matters more than your résumé. Most hiring managers review portfolios before scheduling interviews, and many make an initial decision in just a few minutes.
What they are evaluating is not whether you know a specific tool or followed a popular template. They are evaluating whether you can think like an instructional designer.
Strong instructional design portfolios demonstrate:
A polished course with weak reasoning will lose to a simpler project that clearly shows good judgment.
Many early-career portfolios struggle for the same reasons:
These portfolios often look okay on the surface but don’t give hiring managers confidence that the designer can work effectively on the job.
Competitive portfolios in 2026 tend to share a few characteristics:
Strong portfolios make it easy for a hiring manager to understand how the designer approaches problems...not just what they can build. They also demonstrate comfort with the tools commonly used in the role, including modern authoring tools like Storyline 360 and AI-assisted workflows, but always in service of clear design decisions.
ln most cases, one to three well-designed projects are enough to be competitive (as long as they are thoughtfully documented).
Adding more projects does not help if they all demonstrate the same level of thinking.
Depth matters more than volume.
Each project should clearly communicate:
Your portfolio does not need to be perfect, but it does need to be defensible.
Hiring managers should be able to ask “Why did you do this?” and hear a clear, thoughtful answer.
One of the most common questions aspiring instructional designers ask is whether they need a master’s degree. The short answer is: no, but sometimes it helps.
For most corporate instructional design roles, hiring decisions are driven primarily by portfolio quality and demonstrated judgment, not academic credentials. Many successful instructional designers enter the field without a formal degree in instructional design (although they may complete instructional design courses).
There are situations where a degree or certification may be required or strongly preferred, particularly in higher education, government, or regulated environments. In these cases, formal credentials can be a gatekeeper.
Structured programs can also accelerate learning by:
That said, no degree program guarantees employability. Regardless of the path you choose, building a strong portfolio remains essential.
If you pursue formal education, prioritize programs that emphasize applied projects and design reasoning over tool training, which can quickly become outdated.
For transparency, I also run a licensed instructional design career school (Peck Academy). Programs like this are designed to sit between self-directed learning and traditional graduate degrees. They combine structured instruction, applied projects, and portfolio development without the time and cost of a full master’s program.
That said, no program is a shortcut. Whether you pursue a degree, a certificate, a structured program, or a self-directed path, the outcome depends on the quality of the work you produce and your ability to explain your design decisions.
Networking matters, but not in the transactional sense it’s often portrayed.
In instructional design, visibility comes from thoughtful participation, not aggressive outreach. The goal is to become recognizable for how you think about learning and for the work that you create.
For reference, I built my early consulting business almost primarily from traffic on LinkedIn. By optimizing my profile and engaging regularly, I was able to grow a six-figure eLearning business directly out of my master’s program.
Effective networking often looks like:
For most people, professional platforms where hiring managers and practitioners are already active (like LinkedIn) will offer the highest return. Focus your efforts where real conversations are happening rather than trying to be everywhere at once.
Networking should support learning and visibility. It does not need to become a second full-time job.
And if you’ve made it this far in the guide, I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn and support your journey in any way that I can.
While portfolio projects carry significant weight, many employers also value evidence that you’ve worked on real problems for real stakeholders.
You don’t need a formal instructional design role to gain this experience.
Common paths include:
The key is not the size or prestige of the project. It’s whether you can explain the problem, constraints, and decisions involved.
Even small projects can be highly credible if they’re well-documented.
And if you don’t know where to start, many career-oriented training programs (like Peck Academy) are designed to help you gain real-world experience as you learn the core skills.
Once your portfolio is strong and your story is clear, the application and interview process becomes more straightforward.
Your résumé should:
In interviews, expect to discuss:
Some organizations may ask candidates to complete practice exercises. While imperfect, these are often used to understand how you think rather than to assess technical output.
The practice exercises are also the best way to differentiate yourself and get an unfair advantage after you’ve learned the core skills.
Preparation matters, but clearly explaining your instructional design experience (even if you haven’t held the formal job title) and carefully guiding the interviewer through your process matters even more.
Breaking into instructional design is not about checking boxes or mastering every tool. It’s about learning how to think like a designer, building a small set of defensible projects, and clearly explaining your decisions.
The path outlined in this guide reflects how instructional designers are actually evaluated today. There are multiple ways to get there, and different paths have their pros and cons. What consistently matters is the quality of the work you produce and your ability to communicate how and why you produced it.
If you take anything from this guide, let it be this: focus your energy where it compounds: on judgment, clarity, and portfolio-quality work.
If you’d like ongoing support, discussion, and examples from other designers navigating this path, you’re welcome to join the instructional design community. Otherwise, use this guide as a reference, revisit it as needed, and move forward deliberately.
No, a master’s degree or certificate is not required for most corporate instructional design roles. Hiring decisions are typically driven by portfolio quality and demonstrated design judgment. Formal credentials may be required for higher education or government roles.
Yes. Many instructional designers enter the field without formal experience by building strong portfolio projects and gaining experience through internal initiatives, volunteer work, or contract projects. Clear documentation of your process often matters more than job titles.
Instructional design can be a good career for people who enjoy problem-solving, writing, working with technology, and helping others learn. Many roles offer competitive pay and reasonable work–life balance, though experiences vary by organization and role.
Core skills include instructional design fundamentals, the ability to apply theory to real problems, basic technical proficiency with learning tools, and strong communication skills. Project management and stakeholder collaboration are also important in many roles.
You should be comfortable using tools that allow you to build and explain portfolio-quality work. The specific tools matter less than your ability to justify your design decisions and adapt to new platforms over time.
Stress levels vary by organization, role, and workload. Many instructional designers report good work–life balance, especially in well-supported teams with clear expectations. As with any role, poor resourcing or unclear priorities can increase stress.
Day-to-day work often includes meeting with stakeholders or subject matter experts, designing learning solutions, developing content, reviewing feedback, and iterating on materials. The balance between design, development, and collaboration varies by role.
