• Open Doors
  • Posts
  • How to Get Real-World Work Into Your Portfolio as a Junior Designer 💼

How to Get Real-World Work Into Your Portfolio as a Junior Designer 💼

From Practice to Proof: Smart Ways to Get Real Work into Your Portfolio

Author

Florian Bölter
March 26, 2025

Together with

Hey and welcome back to a new week! 👋 

This week I’m bringing something special to all subscribers: the chance to win 1 of 3 completely free tickets to the UXDX EMEA 2025 in Berlin (19 - 21 May)! The tickets have a full-price value of 1,199€ each and it is an amazing opportunity to boost your knowledge, network and have an amazing insight into the industry. Find more information on how to enter the raffle and win a ticket further below in the newsletter!

In this issue:

  • How To Get Your Hands on Real World: Ditch the fictional projects and get actual work examples in there

  • Get The Best App For UX/UI Designer: UX/UI Hub has it all. Events, jobs and expert tips. Get the app for free!

  • Sneha’s Portfolio: A portfolio perfectly balancing creativity, impact and simplicity.

PS: No Q&A this week but I promise it’s coming back 🙂 !

🤝 TODAY’S PARTNER

Your UX/UI Career Starts Here—Land Your First Job with the Right Resources

Struggling to break into UX/UI? The path from portfolio to paycheck doesn’t have to be lonely. Thousands of designers like you are landing jobs by leveraging the right connections and resources.

Download the free UX/UI Hub app and you’ll get:

  • Easy access to Open Doors handpicked junior UX/UI job opportunities

  • Direct connections to industry experts and fellow designers

  • Curated resources from design leaders who’ve shaped the industry

  • Weekly new events and workshops to boost your career

  • Exclusive discounts on premium UX tools and courses (up to 50% off)

  • A thriving community of 3,300+ designers at all career stages

Don’t just take our word for it:

“Many events, great way to connect with fellow designers, industry experts inputs and opinions, easy to find and apply for jobs and find incredible resources.” - Prajwal M P

Get free access to the UX/UI Hub—📌 100% free. Start exploring today.

✨ Top Jobs This Week

How to Get Real-World Work Into Your Portfolio as a Junior Designer 💼

One of the biggest challenges for junior designers is building a portfolio filled with real, impactful work. Whether you come from a university program, bootcamp, or are self-taught, chances are the bulk of your current portfolio consists of fictional or course-based projects. These exercises are a solid starting point—they help you practice core skills and show initiative—but they rarely reflect the realities of working on a team or designing in a business context.

So, how do you get your hands on real-world work before you’ve had your first design job? The good news: it’s absolutely possible, and there are multiple entry points that can help you create portfolio pieces with real impact and collaboration. Let’s explore them.

1. Internships (Even Self-Made Ones)

Internships are often the most straightforward way to get real experience—but they come with a few caveats. Many internships, especially in the U.S., are only available to current students or recent graduates. If you’re a career changer or self-taught designer, this can be a frustrating barrier.

Another issue: many internships are unpaid, and some require full-time availability. That’s not sustainable (or ethical), and it’s certainly not an option for everyone.

But here’s the opportunity: startups. Smaller, early-stage companies are often open to unconventional arrangements. If you approach a startup with a clear pitch on how you can help them—and ask for flexibility in return—you can often carve out a part-time, project-based internship for yourself. I’ve highlighted how to approach startups this way in-depth in an older issue here.

This is exactly how I started my career: volunteering at a startup that wasn’t actively hiring but welcomed the support. I set my own schedule, worked on a real project with real constraints, and eventually gained strong referrals that helped me land a full-time role. If you’re clear about your expectations and ready to invest a bit of time, this route can be incredibly effective.

One key tip: If you’re doing this kind of internship, be upfront with whoever is supervising you and ask: “Would it be possible to get a few metrics or indicators of success at the end of this project? I’d love to show how my work contributed to something meaningful.” Framing this as part of your learning goals often makes people more than happy to help.

Also make sure to check Open Doors regularly for internships. I don’t list them in the newsletters as I lack the space for it but there are many posted on the platform regularly.

2. Local Businesses

This one’s underrated—and extremely accessible.

Think small: the flower shop down the street, your cousin’s wedding planning business, your friend’s freelance photography site. These are real businesses that often have underwhelming websites and very little design support. They may not think they need a designer until you show them what’s possible.

Here’s how to approach this:

  • Pick a business where your work could make a measurable difference. Look for companies that use their website to drive conversions—whether it’s getting clients to book a service, fill out a form, or buy a product.

  • Frame it as a collaboration. Explain the value of improved UX and design. Ask questions like: What do you want your website to do better? What’s working? What’s not?

  • Go beyond Figma. Business owners often don’t have the technical knowledge—or budget—to turn your design mockups into a live website. If possible, offer to implement your design in Webflow, Framer, Squarespace, Shopify, or another no-code platform. You don’t have to be a developer, but some technical comfort will go a long way here.

  • Measure what matters. Set up simple analytics (like page views, conversions, or bounce rate) before and after your redesign so you can speak to outcomes. This also gives you a great way to build credibility and show results in your portfolio.

You could also team up with another junior designer or developer and turn this into a collaborative piece—an added bonus for your portfolio.

3. Volunteering

Volunteering your skills can be a great way to do real work—but it’s not as straightforward as it used to be.

Opportunities to volunteer as a designer have become more competitive, and organizations with high visibility often receive dozens (if not hundreds) of applications for just a few design volunteer spots. That said, there are still paths worth exploring:

  • Volunteer platforms: Sites like Catchafire and Idealist occasionally offer design roles, but competition is fierce.

  • Direct outreach: Consider reaching out to small nonprofits, community organizations, or clubs in your area. These groups often don’t have design support and may be open to working with you.

  • TechFleet: If you haven’t heard of TechFleet, it’s a community where you can work on real client projects as a volunteer. The teams are structured, the projects are real, and you get to work cross-functionally. It’s competitive, but worth applying and keeping on your radar.

Like internships, if you’re volunteering with an organization—even on a small project—don’t hesitate to ask for feedback and numbers when the project wraps up. Something like “Did you notice any changes in engagement or signups after the redesign?” can go a long way in giving your work credibility and a tangible narrative in your case study.

4. Bonus: Build and Launch your own Product by vibe coding it.

A newer but incredibly exciting option is building your own product by vibe coding it. If you have an idea for a simple app or tool, you don’t have to just mock it up—you can actually make it real.

Vibe coding lets you bridge the gap between design and development by creating fully functioning apps using code-enhanced design workflows. Not every project is feasible to build this way, but many smaller ideas are—if you break them down.

This gives you an opportunity not just to showcase your design skills, but also your initiative and execution. You can write a full case study on:

• how you came up with the idea

• how you designed and built it

• how you launched it

• and most importantly—how it performed.

Put the product online. Share it. Get users. Capture feedback. Track usage. This creates a loop of design, testing, and iteration that mirrors what real teams do—and shows hiring managers you can do it, too.

Make sure to stick to simpler ideas and flesh them out properly, solving one core problem. This way you avoid huge complexity and can focus on getting results quickly.

Note: This approach isn’t for everyone. If you’re just starting out or feel completely lost around code, there’s no need to rush into this. But if you’re even a little bit technical—or curious enough to learn—it’s a powerful way to stand out with work that’s 100% your own and 100% real.

A Note on Freelancing

You might be wondering: what about freelance work?

Technically, many of the examples above could qualify as freelance—especially if you’re offering services independently or even charging for them. But for most juniors, paid freelance work can be hard to land without a proven track record. And while freelance marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork sound appealing, they often turn into a race to the bottom. Unless you already have a strong niche or personal brand, I recommend staying away from those platforms early in your journey.

Instead, treat freelance-like work (e.g. redesigning a site for a small business) as a practice ground. Whether you’re paid or not, the real-world context and value creation is what counts most.

Summary

Breaking into the industry without prior experience is tough—but not impossible. The key is to stop waiting for permission and start creating real-world context for your skills:

  • Reach out to startups and offer flexible, project-based internships—and ask for measurable outcomes where you can.

  • Approach local businesses and offer measurable design support—ideally paired with implementation and basic analytics.

  • Explore volunteering, and don’t be afraid to ask for feedback or metrics that show your impact.

  • Use each opportunity as a stepping stone: build confidence, build context, build results.

Real work leads to real confidence—and real portfolio pieces that show more than just pretty screens. They show you know how to solve problems, collaborate with stakeholders, and deliver value. That’s what hiring managers are looking for.

💼 More Jobs

👀 Portfolio Showcase

Today: Sneha Jain

This portfolio by Sneha needed a second glance for me. Not because it wasn’t good on first sight but it was very simple on the surface. The moment you pay attention though, you’ll start spotting that Sneha is really good at interaction design, storytelling and has a great mind for the business aspects of design.

Let’s have a look what I loved the most!

The Good:

  • Great (Micro-)Interaction Work: Sneha’s absolute strong suit are interactions. Mostly micro interactions but she knows exactly how to place them to make them feel non-intrusive. In fact they always feel like happy little surprises as you make your way through her portfolio. I especially loved the hover interactions on her (well-crafted) intro text, the little cards in the ‘Ways I can help’ section and the switch at the very top to switch between work and personality which I nearly missed to be honest! If you are looking for a way to do interactions in a meaningful way, this is it!

  • Great Storytelling & Impact-Focus: Sneha’s work shines beyond the interactions though. Her case studies are all short and snappy and most of the time tell the exact right amount of information. I would have wished for a smaller amount of screens here and rather would have wished for GIFs of user flows but still Sneha manages to tell a captivating story. This is partially because of the way Sneha uses visual elements to support her storytelling. While I think this could be even more fleshed out, it certainly is very well done already.

As always I can also point towards things I’d improve to further the potential of this portfolio. Let’s have a look at what Sneha can do to bring it to the next level.

The Potential:

  • Highlight Results More Clearly: Sneha’s case studies all revolve around defined success and results. Some more clearly than others but overall you can tell Sneha is generally very business-minded. You have to dig to find out about that though. The first missed opportunity are her case study previews on her homepage. While the interactions and overall clarity are great, I think there would have been an opportunity to mention actual results like the 45% reduction in completion time in her appointment booking case study. You can and should leverage good results your work drove early on to create interest. Secondly I’d highlight results more clearly in the case studies itself as well. The results section of the aforementioned case study is one paragraph of text. No highlights, no breaks or anything. While Sneha really did a great job at visual storytelling in other corners of her portfolio, here is an opportunity missed. It could be as simple as having a little card for each result achieved—maybe even with a little micro interaction to give it the extra bit of love?

  • Typos & Broken Links: I always feel a bit pedantic pointing these out but the moment I notice things like this more than once, I feel it’s worth it. Hiring managers especially look at details and if I notice, they do too. I frankly don’t care too much but this is where some hiring managers and I probably start to differ. My point is: you don’t want to take chances with this. I found normal typos, inconsistencies in capitalization of headings and a broken YouTube link in the case study about designing a community forum for a health care app. I would always give this a run with friends or other trusted people to check for stuff. To a certain degree you can even have ChatGPT search your site for issues although it sometimes has a hard time scanning websites for details like this but it’s worth a shot.

Overall Sneha’s portfolio is an excellent example of interaction work, storytelling and a simplicity that helps bringing her best skills forward. I can highly recommend looking at her approach and informing your own with it.

That’s it for this week—thanks so much for the support! ♥️

If you want to support me and the newsletter further, consider subscribing to the Premium version. You will also get a lot of other good things on top!

If you need more tailored help on your journey into design here is how I can help you further:

Keep kicking doors open and see you next week!
- Florian