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The process of learning can be difficult whether you’re in elementary school or working in your first job. People have varying strengths and preferences when it comes to retaining new information that must be taken into consideration. Even adults need detailed and engaging learning materials to help them reach a point of understanding.
Creating these tools based on concrete learning principles is done by professional instructional designers. Their efforts provide instructional learning components for businesses, government offices, and colleges.
An instructional designer’s work is responsible for adequately educating many different people on a particular subject matter, which is a large task. When hiring for this type of influential role, a recruiter asks a series of questions in an interview to decide if a candidate is up for this challenge.
Do you have an interview steadily approaching for a position as an instructional designer? Read through the following top 15 interview questions below that you’ll likely be asked when the time rolls around.
Tell me about your background as an instructional designer. Most job interviews start with a broad introductory question that pulls the candidate into the discussion. In a job interview for an instructional designer role, the hiring manager starts by asking about your experience in the field.
When responding to this initial question, keep your answer tight. Only include details that are relevant to your career as an instructional designer. Try to paint an interesting picture of how you got to this place in your career.
Example answer:
“I officially began my career as an instructional designer ten years ago. I had been working in the teaching field for a while and found that I had a knack for lesson planning and design.
I decided to make a career shift because I wanted to be able to create learning tools that would be used on a grander scale than just my classroom.
My first job, Course Tek, hired me as an instructional design intern, and I eventually became an associate where I assisted in the creation of 16 unique e-learning teaching tools for businesses.
I’m currently looking for an opportunity that allows me to take on more supervisory design responsibilities, which is why I thought this position would be perfect, given my background.”
Do you know anything about our company? This is a question that’s used by hiring managers to discover unprepared candidates. It only takes a few minutes to go to a company’s website and understand its general goals and business.
Additionally, companies that hire instructional designers can differ greatly from each other. It’s important to know the type of work your potential employer is doing and what they need in an instructional designer.
When you’re asked if you know anything about a company you’re interviewing for, give a few solid details about their organization but nothing too extensive. Similar to other answers in an interview, you should keep it brief. The interviewer will likely have some more information about the company that they’re going to follow up with anyway.
Example answer:
“Yes, I know a little bit about the work that City Looks does. City Looks is an online retailer of many types of goods that prides itself on efficiency and customer service.
From reading through the job posting, I understand that you’re looking for an instructional designer to assist with the establishment of training materials for new employees to uphold these values.”
Do you have experience in any field other than instructional design? Many instructional designers end up in the career after focusing on other professional endeavors for a while. It’s common for instructional designers to have a degree in broader fields, like education, design, and marketing.
Recruiters ask about these former occupations to find out more about your skills and areas of expertise.
Example answer:
“Yes, I have worked in industries other than instructional design. I have a bachelor's degree in education and was a high school math teacher for three years before pursuing a career change.”
Do you have a process when doing instructional design? Executing the design of effective learning materials is complex. Every instructional designer has a unique process of approaching and formulating their work. An interviewer wants to know the details of how you handle this undertaking as an instructional designer.
Tackle this by providing your usual daily schedule when working on a project. This explanation should include your decision-making in prioritization while doing a project. Mention the beginning steps and the closing tasks. Additionally, it can be helpful to include the learning philosophies your process adheres to.
Example answer:
“When I begin work on a new instructional design project, I try to approach it with a definitive series of steps.
With a cognitivism learning philosophy in mind from the get-go, my process begins by evaluating the needs of the people learning the material. This includes gathering a firm understanding of their end goals through discussion and coordination.
With a clear idea in mind of what’s needed, I begin work on the design and formulate a storyboard. Since this is the meat of an instructional design, I spend the majority of my workdays on this portion of the project.
Once these materials have been compiled properly, I develop a working prototype that has training developed around it. Following the completion of this process, I monitor the long-term effectiveness of each individual project’s finished product.”
How do you effectively coordinate with subject matter experts? Instructional designers have to coordinate with many other professionals to accomplish their goals. Some of these professionals are subject matter experts.
Subject matter experts are bonafide masters in their field of knowledge. They often have advanced degrees in their industry and experience in the field to assist in the instructional design process.
An interviewer that’s considering an applicant for this role wants to ensure that they will have the tools to coordinate well with the other people they’ll need to work with.
Example answer:
“I think that the foundation of any professional relationship is strong communication. I find this to be true when working with subject matter experts as an instructional designer. When I’m recruiting subject matter experts for a particular project, I always view their insight as an asset.
I try to build a comfortable level of communication and set boundaries early on. When I’m having difficulty connecting with a subject matter expert, I try to be mindful of my experts' lives outside of the project as well.”
Which project management software do you use? One of the main purposes of an interview is to feel a candidate’s level of experience with tools that the company uses, such as project management software. Be prepared to get at least one question about your familiarity in these areas.
List out the software management systems that you’ve used in past instructional design positions and your level of proficiency with them. Only mention software that you’d feel comfortable using on the job without much training.
Example answer:
“I’ve used a couple of software management systems in previous positions. I’m well-versed in working with professional teams through ProofHub and Trello. I’m also proficient in Asana and Wrike.”
Have you ever worked with a difficult subject expert? If so, how did you handle the situation? Not every subject matter expert you consulate with is going to be easy to work with.
They’re people, and like everyone else, there are some difficult ones. Whether a subject matter expert is late, rude, or unprofessional in any other way, you still have to work with them productively.
A hiring manager asks questions about previous encounters with difficult subject experts to see how you’d handle the situation if you were hired for the instructional designer role.
Since this is a situational question, answer using the STAR method. This includes breaking down the situation and your task, explaining the actions taken, and the eventual result.
Example answer:
“Yes, I have worked with a difficult subject expert before. It actually happened during my most recent job while I was working on a series of visual teaching materials for a high school algebra class.
I had interviewed many teachers who worked with students at this level of mathematics while I was preparing for this project, but one was especially difficult to get ahold of. He continued to make appointments with me for interviews, but then he’d fail to show up.
The situation quickly got frustrating, but he was a valuable subject expert, and I wanted to handle the situation professionally. I decided to reach out via email to explain that I took meetings seriously and was very much looking forward to his insight.
He apologized immediately, and we scheduled a successful meeting that day. The entire situation was fairly simple to handle with a little bit of clear communication.”
Have you ever designed graphics using tools like Photoshop or Canva? Many of the projects that an instructional designer works on involve the creation of graphics with industry-standard software.
Candidates who have used popular graphic design software in the past could have a leg up on their competition for some positions when they receive this question.
Examples of common graphic design software include:
Photoshop
Canva
InDesign
Affinity Designer
When questions about your experience with particular software come up, simply mention the exact tools you’ve used before and your skill level with these programs. Be upfront with the recruiter if you haven’t used graphic design software before. The employer could be willing to help you learn.
Example answer:
“Yes, I have designed graphics using design software. I have the most professional experience with Photoshop, but I’m also familiar with Inkscape.”
What kinds of learning content have you built before? Learning happens beyond the confines of a classroom in many different ways. When you are interviewing for an instructional designer position, they’ll want you to specify which kinds of content you’ve built before.
When answering this interview question, don’t exaggerate your former projects and stick to the facts about the learning content you’re familiar with. Even if you haven’t had much experience in the kind of instructional design that the company is looking for, honesty is still the best way to make a good impression.
Example answer:
“The majority of my professional experience has been with building slide-based eLearning courses for colleges. This is definitely my area of expertise. However, I’ve also familiarized myself with training video content creation as well.”
How do you evaluate the success of your instructional course designs? While an instructional designer is primarily responsible for the construction of learning materials, they’re also concerned with the effectiveness of their work.
Potential employers want to be positive that they’re hiring an instructional designer who is familiar with this part of the job.
When you’re explaining the methods you utilize to measure the success of an instructional course design, refer to a former experience as an example when possible.
Example answer:
“I think that properly evaluating the success of my instructional course design starts from the very beginning of the design process when I’m establishing the company’s goals.
With a set objective in mind of what success looks like at the end of the process, I begin working on a design. Once the finalized training design is given to students, there are a few things I look at to evaluate success.
Firstly, I find out how the participants felt about the training and what they learned there. Usually, this is given in the form of an end-of-session questionnaire. I also consider if a positive change has been affected to the company as a whole over time through measures like heightened productivity or lower expenditures.”
Do you have experience with creating storyboards? Creating storyboards is a huge part of the instructional design process. It’s a document or visual that presents the structure for the learning materials that they need to produce.
Formulating storyboards is likely to be one of your responsibilities if hired for an instructional designer position, so expect the hiring manager to ask about your experience in this department.
Example answer:
“Yes, I do have experience with creating storyboards in past instructional design roles. I believe that using storyboards is an excellent tool for mapping out how a lesson, course, or learning experience will unfold for students.”
How do you keep your instructional courses interesting for participants? Taking classes online or training on the job can be a bit boring for participants if the materials weren’t prepared with their motivation in mind.
While a recruiter is testing your hard skills as an instructional designer in an interview, they also want to know more about your creative side.
While the question doesn’t explicitly ask for it, this is another one that’s best answered by referencing a former project as an Example answer: An experienced instructional designer has some tricks up their sleeves to keep things interesting.
If you’re hoping to land your first instructional designer position, explain how you intend to engage students with your eLearning designs creatively.
Example answer:
“In past instructional course design projects, there are a few methods I use to ensure that students using the materials never get bored. One of my favorite ways to engage students in designs is by tying in visual elements because it makes the information clearer more than words on a screen.
I also try to use interactive elements as much as possible when I’m designing virtual teaching tools. It brings the participants into the experience and makes it more personal. For example, in a former eLearning college course I designed, I used videos of enthusiastic teachers to mimic conversing directly.”
When working on an instructional design, do you consider the learner? While an instructional designer needs to continually be mindful of the company that’s enlisting their services when creating their designs, they also need to think about the learner.
When interviewing for this type of position, hiring managers want to make sure the applicant doesn’t have a one-track mind in this regard. Your answer should explain that you do consider the learner and how you go about doing that.
Example answer:
“One of my priorities as an instructional designer is to consider both the company and the students that I’m creating for. After all, I can’t successfully do my job unless the participants retain the information that’s presented.
I consider the learners by setting standards early with the company about what they want to be conveyed by the end of the training course. I work on every following step of the process by thinking about what design would best accommodate that objective for the students.”
Did you ever design a course that the students failed to understand? If so, how did you proceed? While the goal is for every instructional design to be gloriously effective, that isn’t always what ends up happening.
Sometimes, the students are confused, and the instructional designer is left feeling like a failure. An interviewer is curious to hear about these trying times and how a promising candidate explains their handling of the situation.
As a situational question, this should be answered using the STAR method to recall a former experience on the job. While this inquiry does demand the interviewee to discuss an instance of apparent failure, choose a time that ended positively or with a lesson learned.
Example answer:
“Unfortunately, like most instructional designers, not every project of mine has turned out perfectly. One particular project that comes to mind was an eLearning design for a remote freshman course.
The subject matter was dense. I struggled to construct the design throughout the process but also refused to reach out to my network for help. When the material was presented during the testing phase, students didn’t understand the course whatsoever.
I decided to consult other designers I knew for advice, and they connected me with some extremely helpful subject matter experts who assisted in tying up loose ends. While it was initially defeating, the experience actually taught me a lot and improved my design work in the future.”
When can you start? Many job applicants get quickly excited when they hear this question towards the end of an interview, but this reaction is over-eager.
This question is commonly used to assess an interviewee’s schedule for the recruiter’s records in case they decide to move forward with the hiring process. It’s a gathering of your information, as opposed to a concrete job offer.
State your earliest availability to begin work. If you need to finish up working for your current employer or put in a two weeks notice, explain that to the hiring manager to demonstrate your professionalism.
Example answer:
“I would need to turn in my two weeks notice with my current employer before beginning work in this position. Based on that timeline, I am available to start working as early as Monday, April 26th, after completing my departing duties there.”