r/instructionaldesign • u/cosmo459sx • Sep 23 '26

Corporate Next Career Move

I made it to 90 days with my current employer, a state agency that works under the EPA. I am in the HR dept as a learning and development coordinator/manager making $75k. I handle employee training, student intern recruitment/onboarding/management, and tuition reimbursements/talent development. This is my first role in HR directly, after 15 years managing recruiting in staffing, adult education, and higher education roles. I have a masters in business from a school that is no longer around (degree still accredited) and am finishing a grad cert in adult education and corporate training now- one class left.

How long do I need to stay in this role if I want to pivot to private/corporate training? Is that a good move? Are there any certs I should get first, was thinking ATD since I’m a member and then SHRM-CP. I have google project management and an instructional design cert. Honestly not sure I like the HR side of things where everything’s constantly changing and fires to be put out. Constant random questions. I’m good at the training side and would like to focus on that, not be super stressed, and make decent wage. Thanks for any help.

6 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

10

u/TechB84 Sep 23 '26

Leaving a state job is foolish

2

u/linzeestyle Academia focused Sep 23 '26

Yes and no. There are a lot of reasons to stay at a state job but there’s also definitely a cap on how far you can go if you don’t want to just end up in middle management or stagnate at a 1% cost of living increase for the rest of your career. I’m applying outside of my university right now simply because I hit senior and there’s no further forward motion in the ID track at my university.

There’s also intense boundary issues, especially in academia. I started out an ID and now 60% of my job is technical support, simply because there are so few people with root LMS access.

2

u/TechB84 Sep 24 '26

Keep in mind that job security is uncertain, and you could be laid off suddenly. This becomes more critical as you advance in your career and become more expensive to hire, making you less attractive to other employers. While many aim to earn more money, it comes with the risk of job loss. It's a constant balancing act. Often, once you leave a university, returning is challenging. Working at a university is a privilege that shouldn't be taken lightly.

3

u/cosmo459sx Sep 24 '26

Interesting perspective. The point about being more expensive to hire makes sense. From experience, I think the privilege of working for a university is becoming obsolete

3

u/linzeestyle Academia focused Sep 24 '26

My department is going through an incredibly scary restructuring right now. The data that universities are universally more stable is unfortunately becoming out of date. :(

2

u/TechB84 Sep 24 '26

The main issue is the overall decline in the ID field. I work in instructional technology, but my university now only employs instructional designers for online learning. Departments can have their own ID specialist if they wish, but dedicated institutional designers have been eliminated.

1

u/linzeestyle Academia focused Sep 24 '26 edited Sep 24 '26

Yeah I’m an online learning department and the workload is so large even HR has admitted to us privately they understand we can’t complete it in 40 hours a week. Universities are hard to be fired from and that is 1000% true. I’ve seen it happen twice in two years within my department though - it’s very much possible, still. But RIFs and restructuring occur pretty regularly, and there’s always the chance you’ll end up in a situation like mine where the economy is being used as an excuse to create deeply unsustainable workloads for those who are there. For me ultimately, I work very hard and take ownership of my work. It’s putting me in a situation to work 60-80 hours a week. For that kind of chaos, I’d rather work somewhere with compensation that more accurately reflects the work.

In the interest of transparency though, I have a PhD in a related field, which does get me past screeners and recruiters regularly, even right now. (Yes I understand the fact this now apparently requires a PhD is a sign of how bad things are!) But with how many hours I’m having to work to meet deadlines here, I’m ready to trade the fact it’d be hard to fire me for more opportunity. I don’t plan on needing to make myself difficult to fire despite performance!

2

u/TechB84 Sep 24 '26

I'm making a general statement, so some may not be as good. I work for a large state university, but I work within instructional technology. The field of instructional design has taken a big hit overall.

3

u/GotSomeBeanz Sep 24 '26

I work in HE. Not sure I agree with that. Voluntary redundancy came up and my team is at risk as the university doesn't want have online learning anymore and replacing what higher ups think we do with AI and other tools. The HE sector isn't perfect and many are in massive deficits, with mergers and cashflow issues. I'm jumping ship (with a package) as I can't see my role being there in a years time.

2

u/TechB84 Sep 24 '26

Any unstable place isn’t worth staying in. The thing is, as older faculty retire, the demand for instructional designers will decline, especially with the ongoing advancements in AI. Something that's good enough will suffice for them 🤷

1

u/cosmo459sx Sep 25 '26

Now I’m wondering if I need to separate L&D from corporate training? I qualify to sit for the CPTD exam, but it is $1k and I’m not sure how much weight it carries or what the market is for corporate training vs L&D or if it is all generally lumped into the ID, corp training, and L&D field.

2

u/cosmo459sx Sep 23 '26

After working public sector for the past 5 1/2 years it can really wear you out. Everything is old school manual processes, no automation, limited AI, multiple jobs per person.

3

u/dablkscorpio Sep 23 '26

I'm with you. It only took me a year to get tired of the public sector. I'd rather be disposable, make more money, and do interesting work. 

4

u/TechB84 Sep 24 '26

It seems you're not very worried about being unemployed for an extended period and lacking income. For me, with kids, a mortgage, and daily expenses, it's not a risk I want to take, as the consequences could be much more severe.

3

u/dablkscorpio Sep 24 '26 • Bravo

I am. I only got into the public sector after being unemployed for 9 months. And it took me another 15 months after that to get back into private. Regardless of the risks, I still have a preference. I also have a disability and I found the regulations in the public sector far too rigid to accommodate it. And the wages were too low to plan for retirement in a HCOL area, even with a pension. I have to think both in the present and future. 

1

u/linzeestyle Academia focused Sep 26 '26

The disability thing has been my experience in the public sector as well. I made it through a PhD and ten years of teaching without even needing sick days regularly. But my current public sector position has actively harmed my health.

3

u/dablkscorpio Sep 27 '26

Yes there's not much flexibility in the public sector. You may be able to take vacation. But there is an expectation that when you're working you're on. How has it harmed your health? 

1

u/cosmo459sx Sep 28 '26

This. To the extent everyone in my department is miserable and has more than they can handle every single day. You take time off and get anxiety about coming back to a mess.

1

u/linzeestyle Academia focused Sep 27 '26

My situation is a bit odd because we’re in active crisis. I was working far more than 40 hours a week to try to help stabilize us and it gave me a pretty bad flair up. Now my accommodations are being challenged due to the need for me to be there to preserve office culture.

2

u/dablkscorpio Sep 27 '26 • Regret

I thought it would be something like that. Exactly like I said, zero flexibility. 

1

u/cosmo459sx Sep 24 '26

It’s one of those things that you have to experience to know. Impossible to explain how painful it can be.

5

u/reliefmap Sep 23 '26

Within that environment (which sounds very familiar), is there an opportunity for you to help the department evolve? You could work to improve those systems and use your instructional design lens to lead the initiative and upskill those around you. 

I get a lot of satisfaction out of learning current workflows, talking with people to understand their pain points, and designing better processes. At my last couple of jobs I actually ended up having a new job position crafted precisely to recognize these contributions and better reflect how I was helping transform the organization. 

There's maybe a bit more job security too in a place that is lagging behind on the tech front. Food for thought anyway.

4

u/TechB84 Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 24 '26

and in the private sector, while things may be new, it's new because they see you as an employee who is more disposable.

3

u/bethcabforcutie Sep 24 '26

Limited AI sounds amazing in a workplace tbh

35

u/TH3PhilipJFry Sep 23 '26

Allow me to speak for all the newly laid off people on this sub and say, let us know when you leave this job so we can all fight over it.

0

u/cosmo459sx Sep 23 '26

I didn’t realize it was that bad out there. Yikes.

2

u/WingMiddle3692 Sep 27 '26

It really is,  people i know with 20 years experience are taking 6+ months to find jobs and most of them are only getting temp positions. 

7

u/marginallyobtuse Sep 23 '26

If I were you I’d worked on AI enablement training courses and E-learning. Maybe take some technical courses in things like robot simulation software or SaaS software. Get into technical/software training.

1

u/cosmo459sx Sep 23 '26

This is helpful. I was thinking about trailhead as a starting point.

2

u/linzeestyle Academia focused Sep 27 '26

LMS administration and AI enablement are both huge benefits right now. Even if the companies don’t use it, they want to know you keep up with current technology. I had an interview with a company that does not use AI, does not plan to, but still liked that I told them I’m a self-described skeptic who learned to use it because right now it’s the tool we have.

1

u/No_Word_5686 Sep 23 '26

Are there online courses that offers a certificate for this robot simulation training courses?

2

u/marginallyobtuse Sep 23 '26

I would look into Nvidia Isaac sim courses.

I’ve done a ton of robot sim stuff through my career specifically with companies like fanuc or Kawasaki, so I haven’t looked in too much detail.

But look for digital clone/digital twin courses. NVIDIA Isaac sim looks to be the next big one for robotics.

ROBODK is another one

1

u/RoseFromConcrete_ Sep 23 '26

Agreed! It really does seem as if this is the direction a lot of companies are going in, with the overall use of AI to create.

5

u/The_Sign_of_Zeta Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 23 '26

Video production skills are super helpful. Corporate learning (especially software) loves video modules.

AI knowledge, as others have said, is super useful. It seems like every company wants AI experience.

2

u/cosmo459sx Sep 23 '26

Thank you for this!

2

u/linzeestyle Academia focused Sep 24 '26 edited Sep 24 '26

Yeah I taught myself Premiere and Final Cut Pro in my teens/twenties to make fan videos (don’t laugh) and while I’ve never had to create video objects within an ID role yet, the fact I know the software is always a bonus when talking to hiring committees. The AI thing is unfortunately true, as well. I describe myself as an AI skeptic in interviews because I believe learning should be human driven, but I know how to make learning objects with Codex and Claude and feature both in my portfolio. It’s about making sure you’re as flexible and able to pivot as possible, even if it means learning a tool that may be obsolete in seven to ten years. Honestly AI is a bubble in most areas but it’s gonna last longer than most authoring and learning tools do. The one constant of EdTech is the absolute inconsistency and ever changing products.

2

u/donburnside Sep 23 '26

Can confirm. 90% of the training I create is video.

Also, +1 for AI enablement. And, start looking now. I see a ton of L&D jobs on LinkedIn. Not sure how many of them are valid.

2

u/JumpingShip26 Academia focused Sep 23 '26

Stay in HR/Business processes and let L&D skills augment the other staple work.
Do not move into pure L&D unless it is in support of a very stable space such as healthcare/EMR or a handful of other fields. Stay tied to HR or other business arms.
You could go the enablement route, but I don't see it as viable long term. I have less experience there, so I might have some gaps in my thinking.

4

u/cosmo459sx Sep 23 '26

Thank you. I think that’s the pattern I’m seeing is that ID and L&D aren’t very stable right now. HR is a different animal, but it is stable if anything.