Careers in Instructional Design vs. K-12 Education
How is a career in instructional design different from that of a K-12 educator? Besides the fact that I can relax my shoulders from my ears where they have been anxiously scrunched for the last decade…
Realistic Workload
In instructional design, I’m assigned a reasonable amount of work. There are no immediate emergencies, like scrambling to create sub lessons when sick, trying to navigate parents blowing up your email, managing student meltdowns, etc. In ID, the work happens at a manageable pace.
Flexible Schedule
Corporate jobs don’t depend on a bell ringing. My timetable no longer dictates when I eat or use the bathroom. It’s ok if I need to shuffle work around driving my mom to the airport. I take time off when it works for my family.
Professional Respect
Being treated like an adult was novel when I left K-12 education, because I was so used to being infantilized. Parents/administrators do not trust teachers as professionals. Micro-managing teachers is the norm. As an ID, my manager has confidence in my professional judgment.
Maybe this is why half of teachers are looking for an exit, according to NPR. These ID career benefits might not be the case in all organizations across the Learning and Development spectrum, but they are definitely true for employment at Capital Group.
Which of these resonates with you the most?
