Audio Lesson Demo: Federal-to-Private Sector Career Transition
Client: Personal Project for Instructional Design Master’s Program
Audience: Federal employees with 5-15 years of federal government experience, actively seeking private sector openings, struggling with job title and description translation.
Tools Used: Adobe Audition, Adobe Podcast, Word, Claude AI
Responsibilities: Instructional Design, storyboarding, script, recording, sound editing, and producing
Time in Development: 10 hours
Collaborator: Subject Matter Expert (Hill County Executive Solutions)
Audio Recording and Editing Process
I recorded the audio for the lesson using Adobe Audition. In this program, I was able to effectively remove any extraneous sounds and adjust the noise levels. I recorded this in segments and used multitrack editing software to combine them. After recording the audio clips, I loaded them into Adobe Podcast to add music effects from their library. One new feature I discovered while using Adobe Podcast was the ability to produce a transcript of your recording within the app. This was a great time-saver, as I knew I also needed to include a transcript with the lesson to meet WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.
The Problem
The idea for this podcast came from discussions with several friends and co-workers who had only had work experience with the federal government.
I heard them saying: “This is all I know how to do? How do I even explain this?”
I knew that they were struggling with how to translate government jargon to a new job. The first struggle was how to look at a resume that’s not a federal resume, with acronyms only applicable to their agency.
The Solution
After gathering data on learners and consulting with other career coaches, I recommended that this could be developed as a podcast series for learners that would be specific to their resumes and career goals.
It would be able to address, in short sessions, the common complaint that I heard from employees that they did not know how to translate their work experience into other jobs.
Action Map
As part of my analysis process, I worked with a career coach who acted as my SME. Together, we were able to pinpoint the root problem and set the main goal: to translate the job title and description into a clear language anyone can understand. After speaking with my SME, I set up an action map based on Gange’s 9 Principles to guide how I would structure the lesson and audio recording.
Results and Takeaways
In going through this process, I learned how important it is for my own thinking to first write down everything and then work from the smaller ideas to the larger ones. I really focused on this development on narrowing down my processing and focusing on what the real result I want the learner to know at the end. I was also able to discover new features within Adobe Podcast, including transcripts and exploring music effect options.
Although this is a conceptual project, it has been shared with current career coaches and received positive feedback.
With additional time, I would spend time on including a seamless integration with an additional webpage for the podcast to support this, with resources for the employee. I would also explore other hosting platforms, such as Soundcloud, where it may be able to reach a broader audience.
Use of AI in Development
I utilized Claude AI as a tool in this project to help me analyze whether the order in which I was teaching made sense. Initially, I had many ideas for this project lesson, including focusing on how to start searching for jobs, examining a career wheel to identify areas that are thriving and those where individuals are struggling.
I used AI as a tool to help me narrow down my focus for this lesson, allowing me to keep it within 4-5 minutes. My first draft AI was able to tell me was too long at about 15 minutes. This helped me recenter my focus, and then I could speak with my Subject Matter Experts about how to further focus the job translation focus of my podcast.
Transcript of Podcast
00:00:04 Sara DeVoto: Imagine this. You're in the interview for your dream job, and the hiring team asks you to tell you about your current role. And this is how you're going to respond. I'm a GS-13 program benefit analyst who specializes in interagency coordination for the Title II benefit adjudication. Can you just see the hiring team's eyes glazing over? Yeah, they have no idea what you just said, and they are already on to the next candidate in their mind. And it's not because you lack the skills for the job. It's because they can't translate what the heck it was that you just said. By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to translate your federal work into any language that any employer can understand and see the value of.
00:01:00 Speaker: We're going to start today by first thinking about just one of the most complex tasks that you've performed in your current role this last year. Try to think about what you accomplished and what was the impact. I want you to keep your example in mind as we continue on. Your first step is to translate your job title. Federal titles are going to often include series numbers, GTS level, and some other jargon. So here's an example of a federal job title and how it can be translated into a private sector job title. Federal job is a GS twelve claims specialist title two Dib rib specialists for the private sector that might be better understood as a senior benefit analyst who manages one hundred and fifty cases or more of retirement and disability benefits. Just removing that GTS level and technical abbreviation and focus on what is the core function of your job. It's analyzing benefits now that you have some clarification for your job title. Let's work on that language. Government work comes with its own vocabulary. Remember how hard it was to learn those acronyms when you first started your job. Translation does not eliminate all of your experience. Interagency communication that can become cross-functional collaboration, performing public outreach. That's also stakeholder engagement ensured compliance with OMB that can become your leading and annual financial planning. Employers are going to value your results. So highlight your skills and accomplishments. Instead of just saying you managed a team, get specific. Say you led an eight person team to implement a digital filing system, increasing your processing and efficiency time by twenty five percent. Instead of saying that you oversaw the tracking of overpayments or continuing disability reports, you can say that you've streamlined tracking systems that were used by ten employees to reduce the processing time by fifteen days. The magic formula for how to quantify is look at your action, plus your team size, plus a specific outcome and a measurable result. So far, we've already covered looking at title translation, replacing that jargon, and how to quantify the impact of your work.
00:03:40 Speaker: Now let's practice together. Do you your own example from earlier that we were thinking of? Let's start with that and start applying our three steps. I want you to retitle your position. Look, if there is any jargon that needs to be translated and tell us what is a specific and measurable result that you can be sharing in an interview. I want you to go ahead and take just a moment to think of answers.
00:04:09 Speaker: You should now have everything you need to get started on writing a translated resume. Now here's your next immediate action step. Write down your current job title. Under it, write that private sector equivalent using today's three step process. I want you to review what you wrote down and look at testing your translation. I want you to ask yourself, could I describe my revised job title to anyone that I met in a coffee shop? Is it clear enough that they generally understand it? If the answer is yes, you've succeeded. If not, go ahead. Keep refining. Today's three step process can be used for job titles, accomplishments, and even your daily responsibilities. Practice this translation thinking with everything that's on your resume. Keep in mind your federal work experience is valuable, and soon you'll be able to speak the language of private sector just as you mastered the government job language. Start your translation today because your next job opening may depend on it.