September 24, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode of Ask Holly, host Holly Owens dives deep into the essential strategies for standing out in the Learning and Development (L&D) field. She discusses the importance of crafting a compelling portfolio and resume, emphasizing storytelling and impact over mere tasks. Holly also shares insights on how to excel in interviews by showcasing authenticity and personal narratives. The episode concludes with a recap of key points and a bonus tip for leveraging video recommendations to enhance job applications.
Ask Holly
Connect with Holly + Access Her Resources:
Grab your official EdUp L&D merch here:
___________________________________
Episode Sponsor: iSpring Solutions
🎙️ Huge thanks to our friends at iSpring Solutions for sponsoring this episode of the EdUp L&D podcast! 🙌
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the iSpring Learning Exchange Community — a vibrant space for creators, educators, and L&D pros to connect and grow.
Grateful for the support and excited to see what our community creates 💡
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, we're ispring, an international team of e-learning
enthusiasts who help more than 60,000 clients across the globe
succeed with better online learning.
Our two flagship solutions are ispring Suite and ispring Learn
LMS. Ispring Suite is an intuitive,
all in one authoring tool for creating engaging e-learning
(00:23):
content, and ispringlearn is an innovative online training
platform for onboarding, upskilling, and certifying your
teams. We also provide tons of free
resources for aspiring and experienced e-learning
professionals, conduct weekly webinars with top industry
experts, and organize annual e-learning conferences,
(00:43):
challenges, and championships. We'd be happy to get to know you
and pick a solution that fits your needs best.
Go to www.ispringsolutions.com to learn more about us, download
our resources, and connect. Hello everyone and welcome to
another amazing episode of Eduplnd.
(01:05):
My name is Holly Owens and I'm your host.
And today I want to welcome you back to Ask Holly the no BS
corner of Ed Up L&D, where we dig into the real questions that
keep you up at night while scrolling job boards or trying
to present your portfolio or puttogether that resume.
(01:25):
And today, if you remember, the question that has been blowing
out my inbox for the past few months is how do I stand out?
Now, in the teaser episode that was released earlier this week,
I gave you a taste of what I think you can do to stand out.
(01:46):
But in this episode, we're goingto dive a little bit deeper.
We're going to look into breaking down real examples of
what standing out actually lookslike in your portfolio, your
resume, those professional documents.
When you land the interviews, I'm going to talk a little bit
about those hidden mistakes. They make you blend in without
even realizing that you're blending in.
(02:07):
You know, you become a resume and that pile of resumes.
We don't want that. And then explore how to build
your own unique signature and L&D.
So there's something that you can do.
And I even have a bonus tip for you of something that I think
will definitely make you stand out when you are submitting job
applications. So if you've ever stared at a
(02:31):
rejection e-mail and thought, which I have recently, what the
heck do I do to get noticed? This episode is for you.
I'm really excited to share someof these tips with you.
I hope you find them useful. If you have burning questions
that you would like me to answerin a podcast episode, you can
(02:53):
submit through our website, go to Add up LNN as in nancyd.com
and click that Ask Holly button.Or you can submit a question by
commenting on one of my post. And if we pick your question,
you're going to get some fresh LND swag.
(03:13):
So be sure to submit those questions.
I'm going to be doing more and more of these segments and I
look forward to answering your question on the air.
All right, so let's start with portfolios.
Another question that I get a lot, you know, because a
portfolio I think is something that is more dynamic than a
resume. It's really this big opportunity
(03:35):
that people might miss. So when you're thinking about
developing your portfolio, and Ijust had a conversation
yesterday with Ashley Lonnie of Teamed about portfolios, saying
that one of the things I want tocaution you against is trying to
make everything perfect and perfectionism.
Perfection is a state of mind. It's it doesn't exist.
(03:58):
It's it's a facade, all those different things.
So when you're building your portfolio, standing out doesn't
mean you're adding more slides or you're adding more projects
or you're adding more everything.
Insert said artifact here. Your portfolio is telling a
story. It's strategic storytelling.
You're focused, you're going through the projects are the
(04:22):
artifacts you've made in the past that you're proud of, that
are not proprietary, that you want to share that most
exemplify your skills, that mostexemplify the things that you're
passionate about, that most exemplify the things that you
want to showcase and you want toshow people that you're very
proud of. So I have a couple examples here
(04:44):
of different types of portfolio,quote UN quote people, for
example. So the first one, the example is
the, I call it the copy pastor. So people, and I've done this
too. Everything that I'm talking
about I have done in the past. I've seen portfolios that are
just copy pasted, put onto a page.
You're just rushing to get it done.
It becomes a lot of screenshots.It becomes a lot of things with
(05:06):
no meaning. So it really doesn't stand out.
It's just you're kind of just getting it done.
And you have 0 context for why these things are there.
Why are they important with Today Showcase?
So when you think about it, I want you to ask yourself 4
questions. If you're doing this, when you
tell your story through your portfolio #1 what's the problem?
(05:30):
What was the problem you were trying to solve by creating this
artifact or creating this e-learning or this infographic
or this job? A, what was the problem #2 who
were your learners? What was the audience you were
tailoring this learning to or this document to?
How did you solve it? So how did you solve the
(05:51):
problem? By creating this like why did
this solve the problem? And that goes along with the 4th
question is what was the impact?And that's the data and analyse
you get from what was the impactof this, if there's like
decreased time to proficiency orless mistakes happening out in
in the real world setting where you know, customer care agents
(06:11):
are not making as many mistakes when they're talking to
customers. So those four questions you
should be asking yourself is what was the problem?
Who were the learners? How did you solve it?
And what was the impact as you're telling the story for
your for your portfolio that's memorable and that's what hire
(06:32):
managers share with their team. So that's what they want to see.
They want to they want to you want to show the impact and that
again, is communicating your value in the portfolio piece.
All right, so the next example is the signature piece of the
portfolio. Someone I coached, you know,
(06:52):
they had a three solid projects,artifacts, but one of their
pieces was magical. You know, I love Disney.
It was magical. It showed her process from like
doing it messy like Robin started talks about in her book
sticky notes to like a Polish module.
(07:13):
So we made this like the hero piece, like the focal point of
the portfolio and having this piece in her portfolio got her
interviews and people still ask her about it and how she did
this. And again, what is your
signature piece of your portfolio?
(07:36):
What's the thing like the I willput it as the first thing in
your portfolio to show that thatis the main focal point of your
storytelling. Another pro tip here, and I've
already mentioned this, but don't wait until you're perfect.
A portfolio that feels authenticand learner centered beats a
(07:58):
textbook Polish, but sold this one every time.
If it feels inauthentic, it's not reflecting again who you
are. You're not doing the
storytelling. So when you're thinking about
your portfolio, please make surethat you put in things that are
authentic, that are important toyou, that show your passions
while also showing your skills. I always say to make the
(08:19):
portfolio piece multimodal. And what I mean by that is you
have documentation. You may have presentations, you
may have videos, you may have audio, you may have some E
learnings that you're giving a preview of.
You may have some things that you created a whole project
management process and talk about why you did that.
Maybe it was to solve a problem within your institutional
(08:41):
organization. But just remember, this piece is
the dynamic piece of your professional resources.
And this is something that I'm going to say, you know, and I've
been applying to some contract jobs and some other jobs lately.
They asked for the portfolio. They asked, do you have a
website? Do you have a portfolio that you
can share with us of artifacts of things that you've done?
(09:02):
So this is definitely a piece that's needed and will help you
stand out and do those things that I talked about to help you
stand out. All right, let's talk about it.
Let's talk about the resumes because resumes get a bad rap.
And you know, I really feel like, and I've said this
numerous times, that resumes area static document is they're
(09:25):
very boring. I'm really sorry for people who
love resumes and most of them, they look the same.
There's black text, there's bullet points, there's buzzwords
all over them. It's just something that we're
trying to beat those ATS systems.
We're trying to again, stand out.
And you know what, some of it doesn't work, it gets spit back
(09:47):
out or human reviews and they'relike, I don't even know what
this person is about. South.
Standing out on the resume meansthat you are shifting your
responsibilities like your what you do in your job description
to what impact again, here comesimpact into the situation.
(10:09):
What impact you had in the position, Like what are some of
the things that you took on thatyou owned that made things
better? So for example, instead of
saying I designed online coursesfor 200 students, you can say
something like redesigned onboarding modules that reduce
(10:30):
training time by 30% and improvecompletion rates by 45%.
Which one do you think sounds better?
Numbers, results, human impact. That's what makes you stand out.
You know, it's really difficult to find the just one thing.
But I think if you reword some of your stuff and you focus on
(10:53):
this impact, it's really going to change the dynamic of your
resume. So numbers, like I said, the
results, share that information.Here's a hidden mistake though,
overstuffing your resume like a stocking.
If your resume looks like an instruction manual or it's
(11:14):
getting skimmed, it's not getting red white space is your
friend. Strategic bolding, which I do in
my resume like I bold those percentages and some of the
words. Think of this as instructional
design for recruiters. You want to be able to showcase
because when your resume is submitted, literally people
(11:40):
spend like a second or two on the first page.
So don't over stuff everything and make sure that it's designed
in a way that's accessible. You know why spaces is part of
accessibility and that people can read, that people can go
through and they can read it andthey can understand it.
(12:00):
Like I said, the resume is a very static document, so you
have to work a little bit harderto make sure that it's formatted
in a way. And I'll share my resume in the
show notes because mine's not perfect either, but I've been
doing some different things to find ways to kind of stand out
more. And I've been doing these things
like I do the bolding for sure. So all these things I'm trying
(12:21):
as well. All right, So we talked about
the portfolio, we've talked about the resume, and I hope
that you've been taking notes and thinking about what you can
do right now once this episode is over or as you're listening
to this episode, to improve yourportfolio and to improve your
(12:42):
resume. And I want to say that these two
professional resources are neverreally finished.
These things constantly need updating.
When you get a new job, when youcreate something new that you
want to share, when you're updating artifacts and
information, you're constantly updating these things, so
they're never really done. That's why I say it's important
(13:02):
not to be a perfectionist because it's going to change.
This process is iterative, just like instructional design.
All right, let's jump into interviews.
I think that interviews are really where you can showcase
your personality. You can show who you are beyond
doing that video, you know, beyond putting things in your
(13:27):
portfolio piece. People sometimes play this safe
because they think they have to have a certain answer to the
question. And one of the things I will say
is that yes, the interviewees may be looking for a certain
answer, but what stands out in interviews of specific stories,
(13:51):
And I can say for a fact that I use this at when I interviewed
for my role at Amazon Pharmacy is I had stories that I would
tell of projects that I did and then how it impacts.
So don't just say things like I'm collaborative.
What does that mean? Everybody can be collaborative.
You know, that's kind of like a given instructional designs.
(14:13):
You can say things like, for example, when we launch X
program, the SMEs and I, we disagreed about delivery.
This is a common example. I set up a pilot with the
learners. I gathered feedback and brought
the data to the table. And then guess what?
It shifted the entire project ina better direction.
(14:38):
Wow. That's, that's a whole story of
what you did and that it's showing impact.
It's showing you took ownership of what was happening and you,
you tried to fix the problem andthen the project shifted and it
became successful. That's memorable to people when
they're interviewing you. That's building a narrative that
(14:59):
only you as the interviewee can tell.
So one of the things I recommendis writing down some stories,
writing down some examples. I've worked with very difficult
faculty in the past and I alwaysshare stories about that.
I've worked for some difficult sneeze, but I've also had some
successes, which I also, I have a list that I keep of situations
(15:22):
and I keep updating this list and it's just like keywords that
remind me of the story. One of the mistakes most people
don't realize is when you're giving those generic answers,
when you sound like you've memorized the interview
questions or you know the interview questions and you're
not being authentic, you kind offade into this blurb every other
(15:46):
candidate. You are not memorable.
You're forgettable. Not trying to be harsh here,
trying to make sure that you aregetting things that you can do
to stand out. So I think it's important that
you're super authentic in your interviews.
You're answering the questions, but you're also telling the
story of who you are at the sametime.
(16:07):
And just remember, one of the tips I share with some of my
clients or the people I've worked with in the past is that
we feel a lot of pressure when we're interviewing.
We feel like the company or the institution, they hold the key
to unlock a salary for US, health insurance, all the
(16:27):
different things, like they havethe power, But that's not true.
That's not entirely true. You are interviewing that
company just as much as they're interviewing you.
You don't want to end up in a place where you don't feel like
you belong, or you don't feel like you can grow, or you're in
a toxic culture. You'll learn a lot about the
(16:49):
company through the interview process, so make sure that you
remember as you're stepping intothese interviews that you were
interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you.
All right, So what's your signature in the interview?
(17:11):
When you're thinking back on your career, you know, what are
some of the things that there's common themes throughout, you
know, what did, what did you do?What have you done?
You know, one of the things I love about prepping for
interviews is it's a time to reflect for me back to what I
used to, what I did. Because sometimes we don't feel
(17:32):
like progress is happening and it's actually happening.
Probably not happening as quick as we wanted to, but it's
happening. So what is the through line of
my career is one of the questions you can ask.
Is it accessibility? Was it making learning fun?
Was it building something at scale?
Was it improving a process or improving processes?
Are you more OPS focus? This signature theme should be
(17:57):
woven into your answers so that when the interviewer walks away,
they're thinking, Yep, that's a person who owns operations.
That's a person who owns productmanagement.
That's a person who owns designing, engaging online
learning experiences. Insert whatever here.
So what have you done? There's common themes you, you
(18:20):
wouldn't believe in and I, you know, one of the things I could
say to you to do is take like your professional experiences or
your summary and your resume andput in ChatGPT and be like,
what's the commonality here? What are the things that I have
done throughout my career that you know, are emerging as common
trends or common themes? And then you can bring that.
(18:42):
I turned my microphone off. So there's a few things that we
went over in this episode and we're diving more.
We don't we dove more into what can I do to stand out?
And I'm being very honest here. Like these are things that I do.
These are things that I need to do.
I'm not just saying these thingsbecause I think I'm some sort of
(19:03):
expert. These are things that I've
experienced, I've been through, you know, everything from
interviewing for e-learning development jobs, the contract
rolls to Amazon, you know, interviewing at higher education
institutions, you know, particular clients doing all
those different things. And this is just the things that
I have learned over the years. So let's recap a little bit.
(19:27):
So in your portfolio, you want to tell a story, not just show
the slides. My Portfolio needs update.
I need to tell more of a story. Like I'm putting my stuff out
there, but I'm not really telling a story.
I'm kind of just showcasing things and also share a link to
my website, but it's not really telling a story yet.
It's getting there, but it needsto tell a story and I'm sure a
(19:48):
lot of you can relate to that. In your resume, highlight the
impact, not just the task. Tasks are important.
Yes, in job description what youdid is important, but what was
your impact? Use that data.
Use that information, whether it's holistic or hard data.
Use that information to share like.
In my resume when I share it, you'll see like I've usually
(20:09):
like 2 to 3 little things like Idid that were impactful at that
position. For example, at Amazon Pharmacy,
I owned the ticketing process, like how to set up our ticketing
system and like I own learning that and setting up a process
for our team in your interviews.So after you submit, you get the
interview, bring your signature,the theme that ties your career
(20:32):
together and really makes you unforgettable.
I love talking to other people. I love sharing my story.
You should be proud of what you've done.
You should share the things that, you know, maybe things
that were challenges and then you overcame those challenges.
You were persistent, you had grit, you know, all the
different things. Like it's important that you're
(20:54):
not a perfectionist, you know, sharing and sharing those
mistakes and how you turn those things around.
That's an that's an important part of growing as a human.
Don't be ashamed of those thingsthat you made because you
learned something from it. So remember that standing out
isn't about being louder, being fancier, fancier, you know, like
(21:16):
look at all my little lights fancier.
It's about clarity. It's about authenticity and
consistency. I'll say that again.
Remember that standing out isn'tabout being louder or fancier.
It's about clarity, authenticity, and consistency.
(21:37):
You'll figure this out. I'm still working on it, trying
to figure it out. And before I wrap up this
episode of one final bonus tip that I think is something that's
really going to make an impact. So I spent a lot of time
thinking about things I can do to stand out in this world.
(21:59):
Because you know what, there's probably a misconception that
because I've done all this L&D stuff that I'm landing jobs and
contracts and things like it's all coming at me.
Not true. It's a very competitive job
market. So one of the things I thought
of and I posted on LinkedIn about this and I'll share that
link in the chat is you know howLinkedIn they have
(22:22):
recommendations that people write for you that are, they're
text based recommendations. They're great and all, but what
if we took our professional references and the people that
we have worked with and got to know the most and been, you
know, productive, doing things side by side and turn those text
(22:44):
based recommendations into videorecommendations.
Remember, at the end of the interview, they obviously they
want to call your professional references, but what if they saw
a video that you shared during the application process of a
professional reference talking about you, what it was like to
(23:04):
work with you, who you are as a person, how they felt about it?
That's impact. So I would encourage you to
check out that post because my producer, Jen did one for me.
And it's glorious. It's fantastic.
And I think it's going to make me stand out.
I'm going to do some testing, but that's a bonus tip for me.
(23:26):
And I've shared a lot of information from the Ask Holly
initial episode to this deeper dive.
And if you feel like you don't know where to start, I am
putting together tons of resources.
So I have two guides out on Gumroad.
I have the unlock your L&D career, the ultimate resource
guide. So basically it's like
academies, books, people to follow, resources to use, blogs
(23:52):
to read. Like if you're, if you're just
getting started here, you know, resume guides, templates, all
those different things. So that's out there on Gum Road
and that's $5 for life and you get updates.
And then I have the interview pocket guide.
It's like the little, this little literally you can put in
your pocket or put it in your files for later use so that you
(24:15):
can prep smarter and not harder when it comes to interviewing.
So I broke it down into the stages of the interviews that
you would go through, potentially the most common ones
like talking to a committee or the initial phone screen.
So thinking about all those things.
And that's just $2.00 and updates for life.
(24:36):
And both of these will help you stand out without burning out.
So there's some really useful stuff in here.
Take a peek at those there. I have some previews out on
LinkedIn World and I spent a lotof time curating these resources
and making sure these things areuseful to you because I never
want to, especially if you're paying for something.
(24:57):
I never want to give you something that isn't impactful
that you don't think is is worthy or something that's not
going to help you step forward in the process.
All right, well, that's it for this episode of Ask Holly.
If this hits home for you, shareit with your friends who are
stuck. I'm one of those friends in job
(25:19):
search purgatory. And let's get more people
standing out in the field and remember, blending is boring.
Be the person that they remember.
Be the person they remember. You have a purpose, you're worth
it. Go back and listen to that Know
Your Worth episode. That's a good one.
(25:41):
Until next time. I'm Holly and this has been
asked. Holly, see ya.
Thanks for spending a few minutes with Holly.
She knows your podcast queue is packed.
If today's episode sparked an idea or gave you that extra
nudge of confidence, tap, followor subscribe in your favorite
(26:01):
app so you never miss an episodeof Edup L&D.
Dropping a quick rating or review helps more educators and
learning pros discover the show,too.
Want to keep the conversation going?
Connect with Holly on LinkedIn and share your biggest take
away. She reads every message.
Until next time, keep learning, keep leading, and keep believing
in your own story. Talk soon.
(26:24):
Hi, we're ispring, an international team of e-learning
enthusiasts who helped more than60,000 clients across the globe
succeed with better online learning.
Our two flagship solutions are ispring Suite and ispring Learn
LMS. Ispring Suite is an intuitive,
all in one authoring tool for creating engaging e-learning
content, while ispring Learn is an innovative online training
(26:45):
platform for onboarding, upskilling and certifying your
teams. We'd be happy to get to know you
and pick a solution that fits your needs best.
Go to www.ispringsolutions.com to learn more about us and
connect.
Hi, we're ispring, an international team of e-learning
enthusiasts who help more than 60,000 clients across the globe
succeed with better online learning.
Our two flagship solutions are ispring Suite and ispring Learn
LMS. Ispring Suite is an intuitive,
all in one authoring tool for creating engaging e-learning
(00:23):
content, and ispringlearn is an innovative online training
platform for onboarding, upskilling, and certifying your
teams. We also provide tons of free
resources for aspiring and experienced e-learning
professionals, conduct weekly webinars with top industry
experts, and organize annual e-learning conferences,
(00:43):
challenges, and championships. We'd be happy to get to know you
and pick a solution that fits your needs best.
Go to www.ispringsolutions.com to learn more about us, download
our resources, and connect. Hello everyone and welcome to
another amazing episode of Eduplnd.
(01:05):
My name is Holly Owens and I'm your host.
And today I want to welcome you back to Ask Holly the no BS
corner of Ed Up L&D, where we dig into the real questions that
keep you up at night while scrolling job boards or trying
to present your portfolio or puttogether that resume.
(01:25):
And today, if you remember, the question that has been blowing
out my inbox for the past few months is how do I stand out?
Now, in the teaser episode that was released earlier this week,
I gave you a taste of what I think you can do to stand out.
(01:46):
But in this episode, we're goingto dive a little bit deeper.
We're going to look into breaking down real examples of
what standing out actually lookslike in your portfolio, your
resume, those professional documents.
When you land the interviews, I'm going to talk a little bit
about those hidden mistakes. They make you blend in without
even realizing that you're blending in.
(02:07):
You know, you become a resume and that pile of resumes.
We don't want that. And then explore how to build
your own unique signature and L&D.
So there's something that you can do.
And I even have a bonus tip for you of something that I think
will definitely make you stand out when you are submitting job
applications. So if you've ever stared at a
(02:31):
rejection e-mail and thought, which I have recently, what the
heck do I do to get noticed? This episode is for you.
I'm really excited to share someof these tips with you.
I hope you find them useful. If you have burning questions
that you would like me to answerin a podcast episode, you can
(02:53):
submit through our website, go to Add up LNN as in nancyd.com
and click that Ask Holly button.Or you can submit a question by
commenting on one of my post. And if we pick your question,
you're going to get some fresh LND swag.
(03:13):
So be sure to submit those questions.
I'm going to be doing more and more of these segments and I
look forward to answering your question on the air.
All right, so let's start with portfolios.
Another question that I get a lot, you know, because a
portfolio I think is something that is more dynamic than a
resume. It's really this big opportunity
(03:35):
that people might miss. So when you're thinking about
developing your portfolio, and Ijust had a conversation
yesterday with Ashley Lonnie of Teamed about portfolios, saying
that one of the things I want tocaution you against is trying to
make everything perfect and perfectionism.
Perfection is a state of mind. It's it doesn't exist.
(03:58):
It's it's a facade, all those different things.
So when you're building your portfolio, standing out doesn't
mean you're adding more slides or you're adding more projects
or you're adding more everything.
Insert said artifact here. Your portfolio is telling a
story. It's strategic storytelling.
You're focused, you're going through the projects are the
(04:22):
artifacts you've made in the past that you're proud of, that
are not proprietary, that you want to share that most
exemplify your skills, that mostexemplify the things that you're
passionate about, that most exemplify the things that you
want to showcase and you want toshow people that you're very
proud of. So I have a couple examples here
(04:44):
of different types of portfolio,quote UN quote people, for
example. So the first one, the example is
the, I call it the copy pastor. So people, and I've done this
too. Everything that I'm talking
about I have done in the past. I've seen portfolios that are
just copy pasted, put onto a page.
You're just rushing to get it done.
It becomes a lot of screenshots.It becomes a lot of things with
(05:06):
no meaning. So it really doesn't stand out.
It's just you're kind of just getting it done.
And you have 0 context for why these things are there.
Why are they important with Today Showcase?
So when you think about it, I want you to ask yourself 4
questions. If you're doing this, when you
tell your story through your portfolio #1 what's the problem?
(05:30):
What was the problem you were trying to solve by creating this
artifact or creating this e-learning or this infographic
or this job? A, what was the problem #2 who
were your learners? What was the audience you were
tailoring this learning to or this document to?
How did you solve it? So how did you solve the
(05:51):
problem? By creating this like why did
this solve the problem? And that goes along with the 4th
question is what was the impact?And that's the data and analyse
you get from what was the impactof this, if there's like
decreased time to proficiency orless mistakes happening out in
in the real world setting where you know, customer care agents
(06:11):
are not making as many mistakes when they're talking to
customers. So those four questions you
should be asking yourself is what was the problem?
Who were the learners? How did you solve it?
And what was the impact as you're telling the story for
your for your portfolio that's memorable and that's what hire
(06:32):
managers share with their team. So that's what they want to see.
They want to they want to you want to show the impact and that
again, is communicating your value in the portfolio piece.
All right, so the next example is the signature piece of the
portfolio. Someone I coached, you know,
(06:52):
they had a three solid projects,artifacts, but one of their
pieces was magical. You know, I love Disney.
It was magical. It showed her process from like
doing it messy like Robin started talks about in her book
sticky notes to like a Polish module.
(07:13):
So we made this like the hero piece, like the focal point of
the portfolio and having this piece in her portfolio got her
interviews and people still ask her about it and how she did
this. And again, what is your
signature piece of your portfolio?
(07:36):
What's the thing like the I willput it as the first thing in
your portfolio to show that thatis the main focal point of your
storytelling. Another pro tip here, and I've
already mentioned this, but don't wait until you're perfect.
A portfolio that feels authenticand learner centered beats a
(07:58):
textbook Polish, but sold this one every time.
If it feels inauthentic, it's not reflecting again who you
are. You're not doing the
storytelling. So when you're thinking about
your portfolio, please make surethat you put in things that are
authentic, that are important toyou, that show your passions
while also showing your skills. I always say to make the
(08:19):
portfolio piece multimodal. And what I mean by that is you
have documentation. You may have presentations, you
may have videos, you may have audio, you may have some E
learnings that you're giving a preview of.
You may have some things that you created a whole project
management process and talk about why you did that.
Maybe it was to solve a problem within your institutional
(08:41):
organization. But just remember, this piece is
the dynamic piece of your professional resources.
And this is something that I'm going to say, you know, and I've
been applying to some contract jobs and some other jobs lately.
They asked for the portfolio. They asked, do you have a
website? Do you have a portfolio that you
can share with us of artifacts of things that you've done?
(09:02):
So this is definitely a piece that's needed and will help you
stand out and do those things that I talked about to help you
stand out. All right, let's talk about it.
Let's talk about the resumes because resumes get a bad rap.
And you know, I really feel like, and I've said this
numerous times, that resumes area static document is they're
(09:25):
very boring. I'm really sorry for people who
love resumes and most of them, they look the same.
There's black text, there's bullet points, there's buzzwords
all over them. It's just something that we're
trying to beat those ATS systems.
We're trying to again, stand out.
And you know what, some of it doesn't work, it gets spit back
(09:47):
out or human reviews and they'relike, I don't even know what
this person is about. South.
Standing out on the resume meansthat you are shifting your
responsibilities like your what you do in your job description
to what impact again, here comesimpact into the situation.
(10:09):
What impact you had in the position, Like what are some of
the things that you took on thatyou owned that made things
better? So for example, instead of
saying I designed online coursesfor 200 students, you can say
something like redesigned onboarding modules that reduce
(10:30):
training time by 30% and improvecompletion rates by 45%.
Which one do you think sounds better?
Numbers, results, human impact. That's what makes you stand out.
You know, it's really difficult to find the just one thing.
But I think if you reword some of your stuff and you focus on
(10:53):
this impact, it's really going to change the dynamic of your
resume. So numbers, like I said, the
results, share that information.Here's a hidden mistake though,
overstuffing your resume like a stocking.
If your resume looks like an instruction manual or it's
(11:14):
getting skimmed, it's not getting red white space is your
friend. Strategic bolding, which I do in
my resume like I bold those percentages and some of the
words. Think of this as instructional
design for recruiters. You want to be able to showcase
because when your resume is submitted, literally people
(11:40):
spend like a second or two on the first page.
So don't over stuff everything and make sure that it's designed
in a way that's accessible. You know why spaces is part of
accessibility and that people can read, that people can go
through and they can read it andthey can understand it.
(12:00):
Like I said, the resume is a very static document, so you
have to work a little bit harderto make sure that it's formatted
in a way. And I'll share my resume in the
show notes because mine's not perfect either, but I've been
doing some different things to find ways to kind of stand out
more. And I've been doing these things
like I do the bolding for sure. So all these things I'm trying
(12:21):
as well. All right, So we talked about
the portfolio, we've talked about the resume, and I hope
that you've been taking notes and thinking about what you can
do right now once this episode is over or as you're listening
to this episode, to improve yourportfolio and to improve your
(12:42):
resume. And I want to say that these two
professional resources are neverreally finished.
These things constantly need updating.
When you get a new job, when youcreate something new that you
want to share, when you're updating artifacts and
information, you're constantly updating these things, so
they're never really done. That's why I say it's important
(13:02):
not to be a perfectionist because it's going to change.
This process is iterative, just like instructional design.
All right, let's jump into interviews.
I think that interviews are really where you can showcase
your personality. You can show who you are beyond
doing that video, you know, beyond putting things in your
(13:27):
portfolio piece. People sometimes play this safe
because they think they have to have a certain answer to the
question. And one of the things I will say
is that yes, the interviewees may be looking for a certain
answer, but what stands out in interviews of specific stories,
(13:51):
And I can say for a fact that I use this at when I interviewed
for my role at Amazon Pharmacy is I had stories that I would
tell of projects that I did and then how it impacts.
So don't just say things like I'm collaborative.
What does that mean? Everybody can be collaborative.
You know, that's kind of like a given instructional designs.
(14:13):
You can say things like, for example, when we launch X
program, the SMEs and I, we disagreed about delivery.
This is a common example. I set up a pilot with the
learners. I gathered feedback and brought
the data to the table. And then guess what?
It shifted the entire project ina better direction.
(14:38):
Wow. That's, that's a whole story of
what you did and that it's showing impact.
It's showing you took ownership of what was happening and you,
you tried to fix the problem andthen the project shifted and it
became successful. That's memorable to people when
they're interviewing you. That's building a narrative that
(14:59):
only you as the interviewee can tell.
So one of the things I recommendis writing down some stories,
writing down some examples. I've worked with very difficult
faculty in the past and I alwaysshare stories about that.
I've worked for some difficult sneeze, but I've also had some
successes, which I also, I have a list that I keep of situations
(15:22):
and I keep updating this list and it's just like keywords that
remind me of the story. One of the mistakes most people
don't realize is when you're giving those generic answers,
when you sound like you've memorized the interview
questions or you know the interview questions and you're
not being authentic, you kind offade into this blurb every other
(15:46):
candidate. You are not memorable.
You're forgettable. Not trying to be harsh here,
trying to make sure that you aregetting things that you can do
to stand out. So I think it's important that
you're super authentic in your interviews.
You're answering the questions, but you're also telling the
story of who you are at the sametime.
(16:07):
And just remember, one of the tips I share with some of my
clients or the people I've worked with in the past is that
we feel a lot of pressure when we're interviewing.
We feel like the company or the institution, they hold the key
to unlock a salary for US, health insurance, all the
(16:27):
different things, like they havethe power, But that's not true.
That's not entirely true. You are interviewing that
company just as much as they're interviewing you.
You don't want to end up in a place where you don't feel like
you belong, or you don't feel like you can grow, or you're in
a toxic culture. You'll learn a lot about the
(16:49):
company through the interview process, so make sure that you
remember as you're stepping intothese interviews that you were
interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you.
All right, So what's your signature in the interview?
(17:11):
When you're thinking back on your career, you know, what are
some of the things that there's common themes throughout, you
know, what did, what did you do?What have you done?
You know, one of the things I love about prepping for
interviews is it's a time to reflect for me back to what I
used to, what I did. Because sometimes we don't feel
(17:32):
like progress is happening and it's actually happening.
Probably not happening as quick as we wanted to, but it's
happening. So what is the through line of
my career is one of the questions you can ask.
Is it accessibility? Was it making learning fun?
Was it building something at scale?
Was it improving a process or improving processes?
Are you more OPS focus? This signature theme should be
(17:57):
woven into your answers so that when the interviewer walks away,
they're thinking, Yep, that's a person who owns operations.
That's a person who owns productmanagement.
That's a person who owns designing, engaging online
learning experiences. Insert whatever here.
So what have you done? There's common themes you, you
(18:20):
wouldn't believe in and I, you know, one of the things I could
say to you to do is take like your professional experiences or
your summary and your resume andput in ChatGPT and be like,
what's the commonality here? What are the things that I have
done throughout my career that you know, are emerging as common
trends or common themes? And then you can bring that.
(18:42):
I turned my microphone off. So there's a few things that we
went over in this episode and we're diving more.
We don't we dove more into what can I do to stand out?
And I'm being very honest here. Like these are things that I do.
These are things that I need to do.
I'm not just saying these thingsbecause I think I'm some sort of
(19:03):
expert. These are things that I've
experienced, I've been through, you know, everything from
interviewing for e-learning development jobs, the contract
rolls to Amazon, you know, interviewing at higher education
institutions, you know, particular clients doing all
those different things. And this is just the things that
I have learned over the years. So let's recap a little bit.
(19:27):
So in your portfolio, you want to tell a story, not just show
the slides. My Portfolio needs update.
I need to tell more of a story. Like I'm putting my stuff out
there, but I'm not really telling a story.
I'm kind of just showcasing things and also share a link to
my website, but it's not really telling a story yet.
It's getting there, but it needsto tell a story and I'm sure a
(19:48):
lot of you can relate to that. In your resume, highlight the
impact, not just the task. Tasks are important.
Yes, in job description what youdid is important, but what was
your impact? Use that data.
Use that information, whether it's holistic or hard data.
Use that information to share like.
In my resume when I share it, you'll see like I've usually
(20:09):
like 2 to 3 little things like Idid that were impactful at that
position. For example, at Amazon Pharmacy,
I owned the ticketing process, like how to set up our ticketing
system and like I own learning that and setting up a process
for our team in your interviews.So after you submit, you get the
interview, bring your signature,the theme that ties your career
(20:32):
together and really makes you unforgettable.
I love talking to other people. I love sharing my story.
You should be proud of what you've done.
You should share the things that, you know, maybe things
that were challenges and then you overcame those challenges.
You were persistent, you had grit, you know, all the
different things. Like it's important that you're
(20:54):
not a perfectionist, you know, sharing and sharing those
mistakes and how you turn those things around.
That's an that's an important part of growing as a human.
Don't be ashamed of those thingsthat you made because you
learned something from it. So remember that standing out
isn't about being louder, being fancier, fancier, you know, like
(21:16):
look at all my little lights fancier.
It's about clarity. It's about authenticity and
consistency. I'll say that again.
Remember that standing out isn'tabout being louder or fancier.
It's about clarity, authenticity, and consistency.
(21:37):
You'll figure this out. I'm still working on it, trying
to figure it out. And before I wrap up this
episode of one final bonus tip that I think is something that's
really going to make an impact. So I spent a lot of time
thinking about things I can do to stand out in this world.
(21:59):
Because you know what, there's probably a misconception that
because I've done all this L&D stuff that I'm landing jobs and
contracts and things like it's all coming at me.
Not true. It's a very competitive job
market. So one of the things I thought
of and I posted on LinkedIn about this and I'll share that
link in the chat is you know howLinkedIn they have
(22:22):
recommendations that people write for you that are, they're
text based recommendations. They're great and all, but what
if we took our professional references and the people that
we have worked with and got to know the most and been, you
know, productive, doing things side by side and turn those text
(22:44):
based recommendations into videorecommendations.
Remember, at the end of the interview, they obviously they
want to call your professional references, but what if they saw
a video that you shared during the application process of a
professional reference talking about you, what it was like to
(23:04):
work with you, who you are as a person, how they felt about it?
That's impact. So I would encourage you to
check out that post because my producer, Jen did one for me.
And it's glorious. It's fantastic.
And I think it's going to make me stand out.
I'm going to do some testing, but that's a bonus tip for me.
(23:26):
And I've shared a lot of information from the Ask Holly
initial episode to this deeper dive.
And if you feel like you don't know where to start, I am
putting together tons of resources.
So I have two guides out on Gumroad.
I have the unlock your L&D career, the ultimate resource
guide. So basically it's like
academies, books, people to follow, resources to use, blogs
(23:52):
to read. Like if you're, if you're just
getting started here, you know, resume guides, templates, all
those different things. So that's out there on Gum Road
and that's $5 for life and you get updates.
And then I have the interview pocket guide.
It's like the little, this little literally you can put in
your pocket or put it in your files for later use so that you
(24:15):
can prep smarter and not harder when it comes to interviewing.
So I broke it down into the stages of the interviews that
you would go through, potentially the most common ones
like talking to a committee or the initial phone screen.
So thinking about all those things.
And that's just $2.00 and updates for life.
(24:36):
And both of these will help you stand out without burning out.
So there's some really useful stuff in here.
Take a peek at those there. I have some previews out on
LinkedIn World and I spent a lotof time curating these resources
and making sure these things areuseful to you because I never
want to, especially if you're paying for something.
(24:57):
I never want to give you something that isn't impactful
that you don't think is is worthy or something that's not
going to help you step forward in the process.
All right, well, that's it for this episode of Ask Holly.
If this hits home for you, shareit with your friends who are
stuck. I'm one of those friends in job
(25:19):
search purgatory. And let's get more people
standing out in the field and remember, blending is boring.
Be the person that they remember.
Be the person they remember. You have a purpose, you're worth
it. Go back and listen to that Know
Your Worth episode. That's a good one.
(25:41):
Until next time. I'm Holly and this has been
asked. Holly, see ya.
Thanks for spending a few minutes with Holly.
She knows your podcast queue is packed.
If today's episode sparked an idea or gave you that extra
nudge of confidence, tap, followor subscribe in your favorite
(26:01):
app so you never miss an episodeof Edup L&D.
Dropping a quick rating or review helps more educators and
learning pros discover the show,too.
Want to keep the conversation going?
Connect with Holly on LinkedIn and share your biggest take
away. She reads every message.
Until next time, keep learning, keep leading, and keep believing
in your own story. Talk soon.
(26:24):
Hi, we're ispring, an international team of e-learning
enthusiasts who helped more than60,000 clients across the globe
succeed with better online learning.
Our two flagship solutions are ispring Suite and ispring Learn
LMS. Ispring Suite is an intuitive,
all in one authoring tool for creating engaging e-learning
content, while ispring Learn is an innovative online training
(26:45):
platform for onboarding, upskilling and certifying your
teams. We'd be happy to get to know you
and pick a solution that fits your needs best.
Go to www.ispringsolutions.com to learn more about us and
connect.
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com