Designers, Here’s Why a ‘Perfect’ Portfolio Won’t Get You Hired
A few weeks back, a designer reached out to me for advice. She was desperate and frustrated — she had just received a rejection for a job she really wanted and was willing to sacrifice a lot for. Now, she was scrolling through her feed, searching for more vacancies.
Finally, she kept applying and was invited to the first interview for her dream job. We scheduled a mentoring session to review her self-presentation and strategy. During that conversation, I caught myself repeating the same advice I’ve been giving designers on a job hunt for the last 3 years.
While I love sharing knowledge in 1:1 sessions, I thought more people could benefit from what I’ve learned, both as an applicant and a hiring manager. In this article, I’ve summarized a few key messages I want to get across to the design community.
Confidence Over Perfectionism
With a background in coaching and my empathetic nature, I usually spend a large portion of each mentorship session reassuring and encouraging the mentee. Job hunting can be so frustrating with its ups and downs that, regardless of seniority or skills, it can easily hurt our confidence and self-esteem. Sometimes, one just needs a supportive shoulder, not only effective advice. Even if you don’t read the tips below, I’d like one message to stick with you: success is 80% mental.
Some mentees I’ve worked with were too focused on getting things perfect:
- What if my client didn’t end up implementing my design?
- Can I even present this case study if I didn’t do interviews or usability testing to support my design?
- What if I skipped wireframes — does that still make it a valid case study?
Any designer or hiring manager will tell you that a “perfect” product design (and development) process exists only in theory. Companies are usually more interested in how you navigated real-life challenges like low budgets, tight deadlines, or team conflicts than in seeing a polished double diamond. In fact, viewing a seemingly perfect case study can give the impression of seeing a very hypothetical example from a bootcamp or hackathon, rather than a realistic project with actual limitations.
Instead, present what you have actually done — and if needed, run a quick validation study or desk research to support your decisions. That’s more than enough. Hiring managers often don’t have the time to go through every single detail. Handle questions with competence: explain why you did things the way you did, and mention how you circumnavigated external factors using trade-offs or Plan B.
Finally, try to stand out among other applicants instead of trying to be the perfect candidate. Job descriptions are often written with lots of ambition — hiring managers seem to expect “unicorns” or full-stack “T-shaped” heroes to cover multiple roles at once. This is often unrealistic, so don’t hesitate to apply even if you’re not a 100% fit. Instead, think about how your CV and portfolio can catch attention when a hiring manager (or AI) is skimming through it after screening 199 CVs just like yours.
Treat Your Job Search as a Funnel: Your Application Documents as a Product
While we designers can be very methodological in our craft, that often doesn’t extend to our job search. If you can streamline your creative process or product development cycle, why let your job hunting be so chaotic?
The best piece of advice I ever received on this topic was: think of your job search as a funnel. Your starting point is where you are now — with your current experience, portfolio, and skills. Your end goal is to receive an offer that suits your needs. If it were a product you’re designing, you would (and I hope you do) carefully measure success at each stage, from user acquisition to referral.
So, what about your job hunting? Make sure you track:
- # of applications sent
- # of introduction interviews
- # of technical interviews or portfolio reviews
- Any other steps in the process
- Response and rejection reasons
What’s your drop-off rate at every step? If you changed your application documents along the way, how did it impact your metrics? What if you did an A/B test by sending out slightly different CVs or portfolios, or adding a cover letter?
This approach works. It gives you data on which you can base your decisions. It puts you in the driver’s seat and gives you control. You can now understand whether the two months you spent improving your portfolio actually paid off in terms of conversion. You might notice that application documents often don’t matter that much — your initial response rate may remain the same, so you see that rejection doesn’t necessarily reflect your talent or skill as a designer.
The metrics above give you quantitative data, but you might still lack qualitative insights to improve conversion. For that, I recommend the tip below.
Seek Advice from Mentors in Desired Roles and Hiring Managers
If you don’t understand why you’re not getting hired, ask for feedback. The easiest way to do so is by asking the companies that rejected you — especially if this happened after an interview rather than just CV screening. In that case, you probably have a more personal connection with the hiring manager, so you’re more likely to get a response. But nobody will blame you for also replying to those frustrating automatic rejection emails asking for feedback. I’ve done that, and it can pay off.
Once, I got a 1-hour feedback meeting with the design lead who gave me detailed reasons for my rejection. This was extremely helpful, and I am super grateful. But I don’t expect every hiring manager to find time for that in their hectic schedule.
A much more efficient way to improve your CV and portfolio is by asking a mentor (or a few). To improve my portfolio, I reached out to five design leads and managers for a 1-hour session with each. I noted down their feedback on a board and clustered the findings. Just like I explained earlier, I treated my application documents as a product I could improve — using methods I know well. I ended up adjusting a few things on my portfolio, which led to a second iteration that took me through several successful portfolio reviews and landed me with two great offers to choose from.
I used the Ukrainian Projector Mentorship Platform, which offers sessions for a donation to the Ukrainian military ( 🇺🇦). I also reached out to my ex-manager for a paid coaching session. You can try LinkedIn or even contact your ex-colleagues or acquaintances with the right profile. There’s plenty of free mentorship available, but even if you have to pay, I found it to be a worthy investment.
Make sure you contact people who are at the same position/seniority level as those who might actually interview you. Search for people with experience in the countries or industries where you want to work. Expectations from a designer vary widely across markets and business areas — don’t underestimate that.
So, What Now?
Do you still think the hiring process is an exam that will inevitably reveal your incompetence? Shut down the imposter in your head. I’ve found that it helps to think of job hunting as a way of improving your self-presentation and testing your competitiveness in the market. Use it as a journey full of experiments that will eventually refine your skills and bring you to the desired result — one you might not even imagine right now.
