Professional Development Goals for Instructional Designers

You may be sitting in your home office right now, reading this blog, and thinking to yourself, “Look at me. I’m a fancy-schmancy, freelancing, instructional design powerhouse at the apex of my performance and expertise. Professional development goals? I don’t know her.”

First of all, how dare you. Second of all, we hate to burst your bubble but professional development doesn’t end…well…kinda ever. We’ll make an exception for Sir David Attenborough though, because those nature documentaries are just bangers all. For the rest of us though, it’s absolutely crucial to set professional development goals, no matter where you’re at in your ID freelancing career.

You should think of your professional development goals as the roadmap to your career! As a freelancer, no one is watching out for your professional (and personal) growth but you. The best piece of advice we can give you is to get into a growth mindset— the earlier in your career, the better. Of course, we’re not suggesting you shouldn’t celebrate your big wins— you definitely should. But it’s good practice to think of yourself as a constant work in progress.

So, without further ado, here are some professional development goals we think you should pursue as an instructional designer!

Develop a Timeline

The very first step as you embark on your journey of professional development is to set a fairly well defined timeline. Listen, no one expects that you’re going to create a concrete, immovable timeline of goals that you’ll knock off one by one— you’re not David Attenborough, and you know what they say about the best laid plans and all that.

Like we mentioned earlier, your timeline will be something of a roadmap— a way for you to know that you are reaching your goals and doing it efficiently and continuously. Make the professional development goals you create for yourself as tangible as possible.

For example, your goal shouldn’t be, “I will make more money.” Of course, we all want to make more money— but what does that really mean and how will you achieve it? A practical goal would look something more like, “I will learn how to use the newest version of Photoshop before the end of the year.” See? It’s way more do-able and will make you a more valuable asset to your client which will eventually mean more dough in your pocket!

Learn a New Skill

The more new skills you can learn as an instructional designer, the better! Take a moment to assess your skills in areas like writing, visualizing, planning, researching, problem solving and listening. If there’s a particular area you feel that you’re lacking in, don’t feel bad! This is the perfect opportunity to establish your first professional development goal.

Let’s say you feel your writing could use some work— you’ll find a ton of classes online to help you fine-tune your writing. Or, you could pick up some industry-specific books and workbooks! Here’s the thing though…actually read them.

Spruce Up Your Portfolio

Earlier, we told you that you should always think of yourself as a work in progress. Well, the same goes for your portfolio. It’s absolutely crucial that you update and maintain your portfolio so that it accurately reflects the scope of your work. Your portfolio should have a clean layout with appealing visuals. After all, your portfolio is your meal-ticket to scoring awesome gigs so get creative, freelie! There’s always room for improvement.

Build Your Network

If you haven’t started already, now is the time to work on building your virtual network. It takes a long time to build your virtual network organically, so this one is more of a long-term professional development goal. We’re talking about getting on Instagram, Facebook, Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn, IDLance— all the biggies. Make sure all your professional profiles are up to date and most importantly, stay active on them! Very active! You never know what connections you’ll make and what gigs they’ll lead to.

Earn a Degree or Certificate

While not totally necessary, it never hurts to earn a degree or certificate. Depending on your educational background, budget, and goals, there are a lot of options out there spanning from “the big one”—a Master’s—to smaller, more niche certifications. Think of it as a way to prove your skills and knowledge to future clients.

Claim a Niche

Claiming a niche is a great way for you to put yourself ahead of the competition. By specializing in one particular skill, you’re telling potential clients, “No one does this better than me,” and that is worth its weight in gold, freelie.

Much like you did earlier, assess what skills you excel in and what you’re passionate about. Once you have your answer, work toward cultivating those skills by taking actionable steps to improve upon them. Becoming an expert in your field will take lots of time, dedication, and self-reflection, so be patient with this one!

Identify Your Weaknesses

Like it or not, we all have weaknesses. For example, it took us three attempts to nail the spelling of “weaknesses” when writing that last sentence. As you can see by now, setting professional development goals takes a lot of self-reflection. It’s not always easy to assess yourself so deeply and honestly but ultimately, it will help you become the best version of you possible.

Identify the areas that need development, push yourself out of your comfort zone, and start addressing those shortcomings. But please, do it with self-love and kindness.

Learn a New Technology

We all know you have to be a bit of a tech-guru to be an instructional designer, but even with your vast expanse of knowledge, there are likely areas where your skills are lacking. Learning new technology will make you a better instructional designer, teacher, and learner. Not only will you have more to offer learners and clients, you’ll be better suited to ride the continuing wave of ever-changing technology. The faster you can keep up now, the better!

Create a Brand Identity

Another effective professional development goal is to create and foster a brand identity for yourself and/or your freelance ID business. Take a look at your social media presence. Is it cohesive? Can you tell that it represents the same person or business? Does it have a clearly communicated, overarching message?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, think about the ways you can present yourself and your work as distinctly you. Your brand identity is going to create a particular perception of you in your client’s head, so think carefully about how you’d like to present yourself and go for it!

Gain Knowledge From Online Resources

If you’re looking to knock some professional development goals off your list, why not harness the power of Al Gore’s internet to expand your skills and know-how. There’s a wealth of resources waiting for you out there—eBooks, podcasts, virtual conferences, message boards, and online communities like IDLance! It’s easily-accessible, fast, free, and oftentimes hugely beneficial.

Conclusion

And that’s the list! We have no doubt that you’ve been working hard at learning and cultivating your ID skills for a long time. By the way, you’re doing a great job!

However, setting professional development goals for yourself will keep you in competition with other ID’s and also help you stay on top of emerging trends, technologies, and methodologies in the industry. The professional gains will be many and we think you’ll find the personal gratification to be equally rewarding.

Geez, if you keep improving yourself like this, maybe one day Sir David Attenborough will make a documentary about you!