I’ve scanned more than 500+ applications for Product Designer role and this is what you’re missing the most

Or a better way to get hired

Sep 9, 2023

In my years of leading and building a design team, the job's hardest part is recruiting members. Sometimes, it takes more than 6 months to find the right member for the team. The most challenging work was to identify who could be the potential one to do an interview. This was done by scanning the application, including CV, portfolios, and website. What is missing the most?

Firstly, not showing how you solve problems

In most cases, applications usually contain a Resume, a Portfolio on Behance, or a Dribbble. With Behance and Dribbble, they often show nice screenshots and UI of the projects that candidates have worked on in the past. This is not a right or a wrong thing, but it misses out on the most important questions that the Hiring manager will ask:

What have you contributed to this project?
What kind of team player you were in this project?
What problem did you solve?
How did you solve it?
What you have learned from it?

I’ll give you an example of what it may look like:

What can be better? Simply change the Title.

Instead of saying this is the project for Company A or some application name, please put in the problems or the goal of the project that you designed. Such as

How we [did something] at [company A] to [action] [something] for [someone]
[Done some action] for [Project A] in order to achieve [something]
What I’ve learned from [action] for [Project A]…

The purpose is to show right away the experience you got from working in previous companies or projects, and it helps the hiring manager understand more clearly about you and your work. It will leave an impression about you compared to other candidates.

What if I’m fresh, with no experience at all?

In most cases, you can only show your graduation projects or some case studies that you have done to show your understanding and skills for the jobs. In this case, choose a relevant case study or at least one closer to the industry that you are about to apply to.

You had all your time to prepare for your first job, so choose smartly and not too personal. The easiest way is to solve a very small problem you see every day with any digital products you might use. That's going to buy more.

And not just title, but the content as well

Don’t just put in a list of UI screenshots; write your understanding and statement. it shows one of the most important skills that Hiring managers are always actively looking for: presenting and explaining your work to others.

That’s also why just using Behance is not enough because Behance is better for displaying the visual aspect of the work. I’m not saying that Behance is not good; it’s just not enough for your Product Design job application because, in reality, you'll write a lot when working as a Product Designer.

Here is the template for writing any work portfolio for a Product Designer:

Product Design presentation template

Secondly, it’s not about the UI or the UX in a Product Designer Portfolio

It’s about:

How you approached to solve a problem
How do you analyze the issues? How do you understand the problems
How do you have an idea for the solution
How does the final UI reflect your solution

And if you are looking for a senior position, it’s about:

How do you deal with existing constraints
How you deal with other stakeholders
How do you influence other people involved
How you make an impact

Finally, start finding a way to showcase all the above

You can choose to go as simply as possible; just register for a free writing platform such as WordPress or Substack. Don’t need to be fancy; the content you deliver is more important. If the UI you did is beautiful enough, then it’ll be beautiful. Some of the most popular platforms to start with:

WordPress
Substack
Webflow
Notion
Medium