After spending almost 10 years working in mental health and substance abuse counseling, Shelby was burnt out.
The emotions and stresses of her therapist role lead her to search for something more - and that's when she found instructional design!
After spending 5 months in the bootcamp upskilling in tech, creating an impressive portfolio, and preparing for the interview, Shelby was ready to apply.
Only one month of searching for a role, Shelby was able to choose between two compelling offers from top-tier companies.
From the moment you land on Shelby's website, she invites us straight into her portfolio with a nice image that exudes warmth and a consistent color scheme of greens, blues, and grays that immediately establishes her branding.
And although she keeps things simple with clear navigation and an uncluttered user interface, the skills she shows off are complex, varied, and demonstrate that her instructional design process is comprehensive from start to finish.
Shelby highlights her flagship project process quite clearly in her project write up, and then demonstrates the outcome of her intentional design choices and learner-centered approach in her scenario-based food safety flagship project, "Beginner to Pro."
Besides a great use of storytelling and visual engagement, she does a really good job with using a tool like Vyond. Shelby excels at keeping her animations subtle and simple, only using them when they make sense in the story so that they add to the experience and aren't overwhelming to the user.
The level of detail and attention Shelby gave to her portfolio, all while displaying her skills and personality, helped her land a role within two months as a full-time corporate instructional designer.
Check out what Shelby has to say about the transition into instructional design:
Experience Shelby's portfolio for yourself by selecting the button below.
After deciding on instructional design as a career path, I just started doing stuff on my own. I did courses online to learn like the principles, the theories, and to start learning how to use Storyline, which were great. But I noticed that I just didn't really have any structure or guidance, and I was constantly asking myself, 'Am I doing this right? Am I learning what I need to know?' And I didn't like that.
So I started looking at different certificate programs, and ultimately I went with the bootcamp because I liked that it was self-paced and that I would get professional guidance from the pros. There was a community of people that I could lean on. And most of all, I just liked that it felt more hands on. I just really wanted to get in there and upskill, learn the authoring tools, as well as continue to learn the foundational stuff as well. And just to feel like I was going to be ready to jump into that role when the time came down the road.
After I finished my flagship project and my portfolio was ready to rock, I started applying for jobs. I interviewed with two different companies. I went through all three rounds of the interviews, and I accepted my current role as a remote learning designer less than two months after finishing the bootcamp.
And overall, my biggest takeaway from the program was just the confidence that it gave me going into the field. Again, a lot of that goes back to the help from the bootcamp pros. I can't thank them enough for being with me on this journey and for being my cheerleaders, too, giving me that encouragement that I can do this. And now, I AM doing it!
The ID Bootcamp helps you build your skills, create a strong portfolio, and land high-paying opportunities. If you'd like to learn more and enroll, then you can select the button below.
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