What That Means for Instructional Designers Right Now
This week, my co-presenter Christy Tucker and I attended a Training 2026, and she was chatting with a hiring manager about a recent instructional design opening.
70 people applied. Only FOUR had a portfolio.
FOUR!!!
In a field built around demonstrating learning strategy, experience design, and measurable impact, only four candidates showed evidence of their work.
If you are wondering whether portfolios matter, they do. Possibly more than your resume.
The Market Has Shifted
In today’s learning and development landscape, resumes get skimmed, and often by AI, not a real human. However, portfolios get studied.
Hiring managers are no longer asking:
What tools do you know?
They are asking:
- How do you think?
- How do you solve learning problems?
- How do you design for real people?
A resume tells them what you’ve done. A portfolio shows them how you think.
And right now, many talented professionals are losing opportunities simply because they are not showing their thinking clearly.
The Real Problem Is Not Talent
Most instructional designers are capable. The issue is clarity.
We see portfolios that:
- Showcase tools instead of decisions.
- Include too many projects with no focus.
- Overexplain the software.
- Underexplain the instructional strategy.
- Feel like school assignments instead of professional case studies.
The irony is that strong designers often hide their best thinking because they assume hiring managers only care about the final product.
They do not.
They want to see your reasoning. Your trade-offs. Your constraints. Your growth.
That Is Exactly Why We Are Teaching This Session
On March 4, Christy Tucker and I are leading a webinar for Training Magazine Network:
5 Portfolio Mistakes Instructional Designers Keep Making and How to Fix Them
In this practical session, we will walk through:
- The most common mistakes that weaken portfolios
- What hiring managers are actually scanning for
- A five-part framework to structure your case studies
- How to shift from showcasing tools to demonstrating instructional decision-making
This session is not about making your portfolio prettier. It is about making your thinking visible.
Whether you are transitioning into instructional design, refining your positioning, or actively job searching, this is the work that moves you from overlooked to seriously considered.
Because here is the truth. If 66 out of 70 applicants did not include a portfolio, you do not need to be perfect. You simply need to be clear.
And clarity wins.
If you have not registered yet, this is your sign.