Every time I look for jobs in my field, I first run a search and see what my title is being called today. Yeah, it can be really tricky trying to suss out job prospects when the title of my position changes about two to three times a year. What?! Really?
Yes. Dead serious.
So today, I am going to go through all of the titles that I have found and those that I’ve been called. The ones that I have been asked to use will be bold.
Here we go!
- Learning Experience Designer.
- Curriculum Designer.
- Learning Specialist.
- Learning Strategist.
- Instructional Designer.
- Content Developer.
- Curriculum Coordinator.
- Learning Solutions Designer.
- eLearning Designer.
- eLearning Developer.
- Learning Developer.
- Technical Writer.
- Program Developer.
- Systems Designer.
- Curriculum Specialist.
- Educational Developer.
OK, I think that you’ve all got the point.
So why do we have so many titles for Instructional Designer? I believe it’s because we wear so many hats and do so many things other than just designing instruction, that many organizations don’t really have any idea what to call us! And yes, I can make PowerPoint pretty.
What do I call my profession?
My title is Instructional Systems Designer. I usually add the systems into my title, because when I design instruction for organizations, I use a systematic process that includes evaluation within each step. Yes, I plus size my ADDIE.
Now, I will tell you that if you decide to become an ID and get into this field, have a small 30 second elevator pitch ready BECAUSE you will be asked by everyone and your mother, sister, brother, dad, and cousin at least a hundred times — what do you do again?
For the most part, I’ve scaled down my response to “I’m an educator”. That usually quells the masses from saying “whaaat”? LOL
I love my profession and I love what I do. The only challenge I have is that sometimes I’m not given the opportunity to be as innovative as I like or have full creative authority. Most of the time, organizations really want someone who can create slide decks that are pretty. Sigh.
Ultimately, move forward, push the limits of your profession, break a few things, try everything that feels good, bad or ugly, colour outside the lines, laugh out loud. Do it all.
