1. Your portfolio doesn’t need to be perfect — it needs to be honest

When I review portfolios, I’m not looking for:

• ultra-polished UI

• 20-screen-long case studies

• or “design thinking” repeated ten times

What I look for is:

• what you actually did

• what you decided on your own

• and where you got it wrong

A portfolio that looks too perfect, with no scratches at all,
usually makes me suspicious.

📌 Hiring truth:
A designer who can say “I chose wrong back then”
is often more trustworthy than one who’s always right.

2. I’m not measuring how good you are

I’m watching how you think

In interviews, correct answers matter less than you think.

I pay attention to:

• when challenged, are you honest or defensive?

• when you don’t know, do you guess — or admit it?

• when pushed, do you listen — or protect your ego?

📌 Another truth:
No one expects you to know everything.
But no one wants to work with someone who doesn’t know what they don’t know.

3. Seniors don’t talk more — they ask better questions

Some junior designers impress me simply because they ask things like:

• “How does this decision affect development?”

• “What if users don’t follow the happy path?”

• “How important is this for the business, really?”

📌 Hiring perspective:
Skills can be trained.
Good questions are much harder to teach.

4. Attitude matters more than style

Honestly:

• I may not love your visual style

• but I cannot work with someone who is:

  • stubborn

  • hard to give feedback to

  • or treats design as absolute truth

📌 What makes me say yes:
“This is someone I want to iterate with —
not argue with every day.”

5. Do your homework (yes, really)

Before hitting Apply, know:

• what the company builds

• who their users are

• and what this role actually does

If your portfolio feels like it could be sent to 50 other companies,
we can tell. Instantly.