The playbook to find a design job in 2025
Here’s a 6-step guide on how to find your new role (with resources)
Sometimes you need to redesign your career.
Designing your life and career is to be intentional with crafting a way of life (or style of living) that aligns with who you are and want to be.
Finding a job in design is hard. Companies expect more from you. Budgets are leaner and the expectation is to build smaller teams and scale with technology not just headcount.
Here’s a 6-step guide on how to find your new role:
Design your career
Set the foundations (portfolio, content, personal brand)
Understand what hiring managers care about
Create your story
Be prepared for interviews
Don’t waste time networking
Design your career (and life)
“Facebook redesigns. Twitter redesigns. Personalities, careers and teams also need redesigns. There are no permanent solutions in a dynamic system” - Naval
In a world where we have tons of opportunity to make money, taking the time to sit down and plan your career is vital to ensure it fully aligns with what you feel called to do.
The description of the word career means “an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life with opportunities for progress” so make sure you’re progressing! It’s staggering how many people get comfortable in roles where they start to stagnate.
Long gone are the days where you need a traditional 9-5. There’s more people than ever setting up businesses, solopreneur, freelancing, content creation etc.
If you are going to work for a company you should be excited by it, because it’s in alignment with the progress you want to make.
Your “career” should benefit your life.
Questions to ask yourself as you go through this:
Do you need to work for money? If so, what kind of work do you want to do?
What other work considerations do you have (e.g. commute, energy levels, family ties)?
Do I enjoy what I am doing now? What drains my energy compared to what increases my energy levels? What brings me joy?
Can I see myself doing what I’m doing in 5-10 years time?
Understand what YOU bring to the table. Get clear on your values, mission.
We need to live by our values more. It will enable us to live in a default state of internal integrity. Which surely has to bring increased happiness by default?
We atleast need a plan to get there.
Set the foundations
Let’s be clear. YOU are the product. In a successful job search, you need to be able to distribute YOU to a wide range of people. Think of a sales funnel, you need to have as many things swirling around as possible for the job to fall down the middle.
It's rare to find your dream role now days sitting on a job board where you click apply and voila you'll get the job.
It’s not just what you know, or who you know, it’s who knows you.
A few foundations to think about:
LinkedIn:
Quick summary, including certain keywords for people to find you.
Resume style information on each role. Including impact and any metrics. Often people are looking at LinkedIn over a CV, I know I am.
Professional headshot. No words needed here.
You can click open to work on LinkedIn so recruiters can notice you first, but that is optional. I think for leadership hiring, it's not needed especially if you're in a job.
Portfolio:
Think of your portfolio as a product in itself. This should be where you tell the story of your career, the work you’ve been part and can demonstrate outputs.
Examples of topics to mention in your portfolio and case studies:
For leaders:
A leadership deck that demonstrates how you influence business decisions through design
How you handle ambiguity and chaotic environments
How you have progressed your career from IC, Manager, Leader.
Are you hands-on vs people focused? How do you define hands-on?
What has your impact as a leader been like on a business? This demonstrates your ability to be a business executive which is what I believe companies are looking for.
For Designers:
Demonstrate a breadth of projects that showcase different aspects of your skillset.
Focus on outcomes whether it’s improving user engagement, increasing conversion rates, or solving a complex design challenge.
Show where it didn’t go right - shows how you deal with setback and understanding of what you’d do differently next time.
Methodologies - the what, why and when of a project. Link in your work to the business value.
Content strategy:
Some of the best leaders are the ones you’ve never heard of. They are too busy building teams, products, services and creating impact to be talking about it all the time. So my advice for busy leaders is to think “Do you want to share your expertise?”
If so writing longer-form article posts to demonstrate depth of thinking instead of short dopamine hit style LinkedIn posts is the way forward.
If you don't want to talk about you can start by writing to yourself 1-3 years ago and solving the problems you had then and now solved as there will be many people in the same situation you were once in.
Talk about design and business challenges. What are companies trying to solve from a design perspective? Write about that.
It's so easy to stand out on LinkedIn (if that is your preferred platform) because only 1% of users actually post. The advice of "you must post to be noticed" is rubbish. Commenting can be as powerful as needing to post every day. Here's an example from Jasmin Alic.
Working with a good search firm:
You may already know some but find search firms who have experience placing people like you. Don’t rely on recruiters to approach you about roles, be proactive and get on the rosters of great recruiters.
I can tell you from experience the first place I go to when I am working on a new role is my talent roster which I am always building. I don’t like approaching designers cold when I am working on a new role as I prefer meeting designers before I even have work for them.
Understand what hiring managers care about:
This will help you understand how to position yourself.
A few things I think they care about:
Focus on design craft and taste.
Being proactive, reflective and having a growth mindset.
Self-awareness
Good storytelling
Create your story
This is vital. There is only one you. People can copy your work. But they can’t copy how you present, your personality, your approach and likability.
Two things to think about here:
Online presence
How you present in-person
First, work on ensuring your portfolio tells a story. However you want to do that. Someone picking up your portfolio should know a little bit about you, what, why and how.
You then need a larger presentation piece for in-person interviews.
Companies care about your product sense, business acumen, technical design skills, how you create impact, how you work with teams and how you think about your craft.
Storytelling is crucial.
Topics to think about including in your portfolio/presentation (depending on experience):
Improving design maturity + culture inside an organisation
Dealing with chaotic and messy environments
The emphasis you put on hiring teams
Stages you've joined companies at (Innovation, growth or cost-cutting)
Working with C-Suite teams. How you do this. Buy-in. Etc etc.
Product Discovery - this for me is where the best leaders thrive.
Cross-functional collaboration
Career to date. IC into management or why you’ve stayed as an IC.
Clear progression on how your roles have increased in scope and responsibility
Awards won
Level of design craft AKA attention to detail
This is a great article by Sarah Doody on crafting your case studies.
Q: Should I tailor my resume?
I get this asked a lot. I don’t think it needs to be overthought. I think what is more important is to think about ensuring what you’re applying for your resume and portfolio matches up somewhat and demonstrates you can do the job.
Changing your past titles on LinkedIn from UX Designer to Product Designer works well. This is more for your profile to be picked up on a search. Recruiters often develop what is called a Boolean Search (aka “keyword”) based on the functional skills needed for the role.
Great post by Lena Kul on what an ATS does.
Be prepared for interviews
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” - Benjamin Franklin
Companies get 100’s of applicants. As I write this in 2024 it’s a buyers market in most industries.
Before you interview, you will likely be asked what your salary expectations are. Asking what you want to make is fine, but I am always a little uncomfortable when companies ask for what you make now, it’s also illegal in certain US states, in certain countries I work in like India it’s required. You have to respect different ways of doing things.
Recruiters SHOULD be given salary bands and be able to disclose it. If they can’t, I think it’s a red flag. If they don’t and a recruiter starts a discussion about pay during a call simply ask them about their design career ladder and pay bands.
Here’s a typical recruitment process for a designer:
Recruiter screen - this is usually 30 minutes with an external or internal recruiter about you, your motivations, why this company, past experience and an opportunity for you to dig into the role, salary, culture etc.
The recruiter will then pass on your information to the hiring manager to review your work.
First conversation with hiring manager - In this meeting, this is where you can go deeper into the role, design specific details, vision of the design team and a conversation with the hiring manager on what you can bring to the team and talk through your work.
Case study walk through - I believe this is where the interview process intensity goes up a little. Usually there will be a few people in a case study review. Here a company will be looking to assess your approach, level of design and product craft (AKA attention to detail), critical thinking, how you work with teams and Q&A.
How to prepare: Be prepared with 1-2 case studies to demonstrate storytelling covering key parts of each case study and relevant level of detail and show problem understanding and the outcomes of your work on a business/customer angle.
On-site presentations - depending on level this can include 1-5 meetings with multi-disciplinary peers. These meetings can include product critiques, strategic leadership, influencing through the work and assessing cultural fit.
Design task - not all companies do this, but it’s an opportunity to assess your product sense, critical thinking, attention to detail and working to a deadline.
Here’s a typical recruitment process for a design leader:
Initial conversation
First interview with hiring manager
Peer interviews
Presentation to board
Final interview
Before you start the interview process you need to prepare a presentation deck/portfolio (whatever you want to call it!) on how your career has progressed. Thinking about things such as:
How you transitioned from IC to management (however long ago)
How you build and retain teams
How you’ve had a significant part to play in integrating design
What stages you’ve come into organisations i.e moments of innovation, scaling or cost cutting
How you use design to improve business performance alongside peers
Remember, your audience here is not designers, it’s business executives. Companies are looking for is design leaders who think of themselves as business executives first and foremost.
Questions you should be thinking about asking companies to see if it’s a viable place to work:
Strategic direction - Do the leadership team see the role of design away from pipeline delivery, look and feel, aesthetics etc? Do they see it as a discipline which supports business goals?
Will design be represented at the boardroom? Asking questions to understand how that company views the importance of design and how much importance the leaders place on the role of design in shaping the overall strategic direction of the company.
What does success look like? Does this company see design as a value driver or just a cost centre?
Don't waste time networking
Often people hiring designers are not designers, so they are not at networking events.
Networking is useful. But don’t think networking is simply going to a meet-up to hear a few talks, eat pizza and go home. If you’re serious about looking for a job, there are far quicker ways. Attending conferences should be what you do when you’re not looking.
With one post on LinkedIn you can reach thousands of people.
In one day you can reach out to hundreds of people.
“Networking” should be something you do daily in your work, online and offline. If you are starting to think you need to network to find a job, you’re too late.
Summary - To find a job cast your net wide:
Figure out who you are, what you want to do and think long-term.
Understand what companies want to see and put your angle on it. Do not think you’re too good or experienced to have a portfolio. You’re not.
Referrals - build a list of all the people you’ve worked with, clients, past companies. Where are these people now? Speak to them. Reach out. Be brave to ask for help, to ask for referrals.
Smart social media posting or commenting - you are a brand. Distribution is key in a world where hiring is not as simple as going on a job board and pressing apply and getting a job. Do not waste time, post, comment, reach out to 20 people per day. Think of the compounding effect of that.
Find a great search partners to help who is proactive on your behalf.
Note: build a tracking list on Notion/Google Sheet whatever it is with all the companies and people you’ve reached out. The power of the follow-up!
Bonus resources you may find helpful
Navigating interviews:
How companies interview designers:
Career ladders:
Design communities to join:
Here is 89 options for you - enjoy!
That’s it for now.
If you do need extra support in your job search, I’ll be helping 3 people through December. Extra support means CV review/re-write, framing your content strategy correctly, portfolio storytelling, insights into the market etc. You can apply here.
Until next time!
Are you aware that there are many different types of design disciplines? Perhaps re name this article to actually name the are of design you are giving advice on because they are all different. Otherwise you lead other designers here and they are frustrated with irrelevant content. Is this for UX/UI designers? Its this for Product Designers? Please define it here and in every post you ever do on LinkedIn.
Its a fact