Hey and welcome back to another week! 👋

In this issue:

When I put out a call for junior portfolios a few weeks ago, I didn’t expect the flood that followed. Over 150 designers shared their work, and I sat down to review as many as I could. I wasn’t doing this as a recruiter, but I tried to read them with the same lens: fast, distracted, and with plenty of other tabs open.

And it became clear very quickly: most portfolios fail for the same few reasons. Some of these are small, avoidable mistakes. Others are bigger structural issues that kill your chances before anyone gets to your case studies.

This article is about those mistakes — and more importantly, how to fix them.

Before I do I’d like to recap the results quickly:

Let’s have a look at what to avoid and how you can fix it!

The very first filter was the simplest one: did you follow the instructions?

I can’t tell you how many people shared Behance links after I explicitly said “no Behance.” Others DMed me when the post clearly asked for comments under the post. Some shared unrelated work, or didn’t provide passwords when their portfolio required one.

On its own, each mistake seems small. But together, they send a message: you don’t pay attention. And that’s deadly in hiring. If you miss the basics when the “brief” is just a LinkedIn post, how will you handle the complexities of product requirements, stakeholder input, or dev handoff?

Treat every submission like a spec. Double-check the ask, mirror the requested format, and assume your ability to follow instructions is already being judged. Because it is.

Visual design isn’t the whole story, but it’s the first impression. And too many portfolios didn’t clear the baseline: typography off, spacing inconsistent, mockups clumsy, assets blurry. Even otherwise strong projects fell flat because they looked rushed.

In case you have analytics in your portfolio and notice a high bounce rate / quick drop-off after people initially open your portfolio it’s likely this. Your visuals are off.

Just to point this out: this is not a matter of taste in my opinion. If people are leaving after a 5 second impression things are objectively off.

Build on a type scale, stick to a spacing system, and mock up responsibly. Export clean, sharp assets — not screenshots of your Figma canvas. And remember: polish is not about style. It’s about clarity and care. It’s the difference between “this person pays attention” and “this person cuts corners.” I recently wrote an article on how you can practice visual design / UI. I highly recommend to start there.

Another common pattern: homepages that acted like jump pads. A splash of text, then links out to Behance, Notion, Google Drive, Dribbble. Each click opened a new tab and broke the flow.

The effect? I lost context. I closed tabs. And in most cases, I didn’t return.

I understand some people do this in the interim while they are writing their case studies on their new main platform but it’s definitely giving a bad vibe.

Keep your case studies self-contained. One site, one flow, one narrative. If you use a builder (Framer, Webflow, or even Notion), make it the place where your work lives, not a pointer to other places. Link out only when there’s a good reason — like showing a live prototype — and always frame what I’ll see before I click.

The most frustrating pattern was also the most common: endless static screen grids. Twelve, fifteen, twenty screens pasted in a row with no explanation. No one is studying them. People scroll, glance, and move on.

And when case studies did try to go deep, they often went too deep: long walls of text, linear “first I did research, then wireframes, then prototyping” stories, every minor decision documented in detail. Good ideas buried under volume.

Curate. Show me one key flow in motion — a 20-second prototype recording in a clean mockup tells me more than 20 static screens. Use headings and highlights so I can scan the story in 30–45 seconds. Focus on decisions, not deliverables: what was the challenge, what options did you weigh, what trade-off did you make? You can go back to my article my article on how to properly showcase your work .

This one hits close to home because I made the same mistake as a junior: putting placeholders in my portfolio. Big banners promising “case study coming soon.” Empty pages marked “WIP.”

Here’s the hard truth: no one comes back. Hiring managers don’t bookmark you for six months later. And placeholders don’t earn you points — they raise doubts. If you can’t finish a case study for your own portfolio, how will you finish one for a client or company?

Publish only finished, polished case studies. One strong story is infinitely better than three half-baked ones. If you only have one, that’s fine. Own it, and spend your time making it great.

Finally, the most avoidable mistake of all: portfolios I literally couldn’t open. Dead links. Password-protected pages with no password provided. In some cases, I got a blank 404.

If I’m reviewing 150 portfolios, I’m not chasing you for access. And neither is a recruiter juggling ten open roles. They’ll just move on.

Test your links before you send them. Desktop and mobile. If you’re using a password, include it with the link — on your resume, in the application form, in the email. Many ATS tools even have a dedicated password field; use it. Don’t make people guess because they won’t.

None of these mistakes are about talent. They’re about presentation, polish, and respect for the reviewer’s time. That’s good news: they’re fixable.

Out of 150+ portfolios, the ones that stood out weren’t always the flashiest. They were the ones that worked: easy to access, easy to scan, and clearly cared for.

That’s the bar. And if you raise your portfolio above it, you’ll stand out more than you think.

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Jaya Advani’s portfolio is a strong example of clear positioning paired with a results-driven mindset.

A Seattle-based product designer with a focus on consumer-facing mobile apps, Jaya has already built a profile that speaks directly to early-stage startups. Her headline — “I design for human scale growth and think in systems” — sets the tone immediately. It’s not vague, not filler, but a statement of intent that frames her as someone who understands how design ties into business growth.

That’s rare to see this clearly, especially in the earlier stages of a career. And combined with projects that showcase measurable outcomes, her portfolio gives hiring managers a strong signal: here’s a designer who knows how to position herself, and who cares about the impact of her work.

Let’s take a closer look at what Jaya is doing well — and two ways she could elevate an already promising showcase.

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

If you’d like to support my efforts on Open Doors further you can buy me a coffee. If you ever got any value from my emails consider it so I can keep this newsletter free and available to everyone out there.

Do you want your own portfolio reviewed in-depth with a 30-minute advice-packed video review? Or do you require mentoring to figure out a proper strategy for your job search?

I got you!

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