Related Posts
More Posts
DM me for referral in TCS
Additional Posts in Instructional design
How do you get into instructional design?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.



I’m not sure if this comment is too late, but I went through this a few years ago. I don’t have factual advice, but I can tell you what worked for me.
1. To me, it’s a numbers game. It took me about 6 months to go from a Senior ID role to my first manager role. I applied to about 250 positions, got about 10 interviews, and only received 2 offers.
2. I had to take a step back in salary temporarily. You are more likely to get a position going from corporate to non-profit or small company.
Oh, I still design most days. In fact, for almost every interview, they absolutely wanted a manager that also designed and trained. In addition to the typical leadership responsibilities.
Granted, I definitely don’t design all day anymore - maybe 10-15 hours per week. But it’s enough to get my fill.
I also think it makes you a better leader. Being in their shoes and your team knows it.
Continued - I took about a 10k cut for my first leadership role. After 2 years, I shopped around and got an offer for another manager position that was about 40k more than my Sr. ID position. My hope was that the organization would match it, but the pandemic kind of tied their hands and they didn’t.
For me, it has always been about numbers (applying to as many as possible) and taking temporary steps back to take multiple steps forward later.