I changed my job application strategy and was instantly rewarded for it.

Success in the job market relies on this not-so-simple trick…

Yikes, talk about unoptimised. Check yours here.

As someone who recently worked partially in the sustainability industry, I was pretty upset to find out that my portfolio was emitting a hecklot of CO2.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg of why I decided to dive into the portfolio topic again, years after I wrote an extensive guide on designing better portfolios.

Tldr? Standards have changed. And I think it’s time you knew about it.

Hiring managers don’t care about your NDAs

Are you a design professional with lots of years of experience, but you can’t show it because of ongoing NDAs?

Empty portfolios will immediately send you to the rejection line. How did I know? I made this exact mistake with my initial applications a month prior.

Teasing worked in 2023 where surface-level skills are good enough to get you an interview, because back then UI-weak designers were aplenty. Now, you have extremely competent designers flanking you with both competencies.

Details matter to hiring managers, so give it to them.

🧪 My experiment 🧪 Website portfolio with only UI previews: ~87% rejection rate (39 applications) PDF Portfolio: ~60% rejection rate (still in testing, 24 applications)

I mean, getting rejected more than half the time still doesn’t sound good, and the data is flawed because it doesn’t take into account the different JDs, amount of competition, and if there is an experience match. But I think we’re onto something here.

What’s the difference between my Website portfolio and PDF Portfolio? Well, the PDF portfolio has way more details.

Why did I not put details on my website portfolio? Because it’s too easily accessible, and portfolio piracy and plagiarism is still rampant in the industry.

PDF portfolios are custom share links, and it’s not as easily discoverable. Copying your PDF portfolio will take quite a bit of work, and I don’t think even the most desperate plagiarist will be assed to do that.

In summary…

Hiring managers need details. Details online can lead to pretty devastating consequences. PDF with details is easily secured and controlled. Designer uses PDF for her applications without worry. Designer starts getting interviews. Designer safe and happy.

(Vibe)coding is an upcoming requirement

The expectations for designers have changed. With a strong dominance of jobs in the tech sector, knowing code will once again an expectation for designers.

Ohhhh nooOOooOOoo we are expected to do SO MUCH!!

As someone who took a month off to recover from burnout, I can 100% empathise. I haven’t touched code since 2019, and I’ve never been the quickest typist for computer alien language.

However, with AI, there is much lesser cognitive load to deal with, and you can explore and learn hyper-specific parts of technology without having to code much yourself.

Many extremely strong (and employed) designers have multiple vibe-coded projects on their portfolio. So it’s probably time to buy that AI subscription and take up some coding classes, because the reality of getting replaced by a designer who knows how to use AI + code is a baking reality.

In summary…

Make side projects. Deploy code. Be a designer that enjoys building in more advanced environments.

You’ll have more fun, I promise.

There’s lots of competition, so there is an incentive to be competitive

Every time a designer from America graduates from a formal university program, my palms get a little sweaty.

We keep b*tching about how unfair it is that US designers get to make 200k salaries, but if you look at the quality of work they do, it’s kind of justified. America, till today, still holds the best-in-class standards when it comes to interface design.

There’s a lot of cultural and economic reasons why this may be so, I’m not going to dive into this, but you can’t get mad about people thriving because they are great at their craft.

In Singapore, we call this phenomenon “spoil market”. And all you can do to overcome this is to get better.

Many designers in America are paving the way of what design standards are for tech. If we want to redefine it, we need to get good and then, be better.

I will echo this again: The reality of the design industry has been, and always will be, fierce competition.

You don’t get to stay in the industry unless you can prove your value. This rule applies to you, me, and everyone else.

Ask ChatGPT, pick up a new skill, re-ignite your passion for design so that employers cannot ignore you.

As long as you are willing to put in the effort to really try, the results will come.

Half a day after I launched my new minimal website, I honestly felt kinda sad. My branding was gone, project details are gone, but hey — at least it only costs 0.04g of CO2 to load.

I exclusively use PDFs for my applications now, and coupled with my new lite site, I’ve been hearing back more often from my applications.

Is it a market shift? Is it just more job that fit my profile? Is it the new setup being more effective? It’s hard to tell. Probably a mix of everything.

Closing thoughts

Generally, I won’t kick myself too hard not being instantly successful in my current job hunt. There is a ton to catch up on design wise and I find myself being really glad to have the time to explore AI + prototyping tools.

I’m getting interviews now, and that’s a huge improvement from a few months prior where the interview rate was literally 0%, so yeah the market is recovering in some sense and we should all be glad for it.

In the meantime, vibe-code like crazy. Make new apps. Explore your creative limits. If you get lucky enough, maybe you’ll be able to monetise something you’ve created, and working for someone else doesn’t need to be an option anymore.

But the point of this article isn’t just “Use PDFs for your job applications and vibe-code”. It’s about experimentation and trying new things instead of being stuck in an endless loop of failure.

Job-hunting requires just as much strategy and adaptation as our design day-to-day.

That’s all for this update. Good luck out there!

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