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In this issue:
Choosing The Right Spot: Where to best apply? Which companies and role are an actual fit for you? Find out!
Your Monthly Drop of Resources: Subscribe to Krisztinaās newsletter to find the best resources for sketching and UX!
Mattās Portfolio: Simplicity and outcomes make this portfolio win.
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What Kind of Companies & Roles Should You Actually Apply To? š¤
Before, we looked at how to position yourself for the roles you want to apply to. But in this guide, weāre taking a step back to an even more foundational question: which roles should you actually be applying to?
Because even with a polished portfolio and a well-written case study, if youāre applying to the wrong rolesāroles that donāt fit your strengths or profileāyouāll likely still be overlooked.
To help you figure that out, Iāve created a simple visual framework you can use to map different types of roles and companies based on two axes:
Y-axis: Consumer-facing ā Business-facing
X-axis: Startups ā Enterprise
This is not a perfect system. Most companies have both consumer-facing and business-facing products. Enterprise companies can have fast-moving teams. But this 2x2 matrix is useful to map out trendsāand to figure out where your skills, preferences, and experience make you most likely to thrive.
Letās break this down quadrant by quadrant.
Startups: Fast, Scrappy, and Unstructured
Startups are usually fast-moving, under-resourced, and constantly changing. Depending on the stage, they might have zero designers or a small team just getting set up. (Hereās a guide to startup terminology if you want to get more familiar with stages like Seed, Series A, and so on.)
What this means for you:
Youāll likely wear many hats. You might be doing UX, UI, research, a bit of branding, and maybe even Webflow, Framer, or light front-end code.
Youāll work with a lot of ambiguity. You need to be comfortable making decisions without always having all the context.
Youāll need to get things done without perfect processes or a polished design system. Done is better than perfect.
If you want to appeal to startups:
Show initiative. Reach out directly. Do unsolicited work (small teardown, audit, or improvement ideas).
Highlight your end-to-end thinking. Most startups wonāt have a team where you can only focus on one slice of the process.
If youāre collaborative, scrappy, and confident working autonomously, make that clearāin your portfolio and your messaging.
Enterprise: Structured, Slow, and Process-Heavy
Enterprise companies are the opposite. Everything is more structured. Roles are more clearly defined. Processes are well-established. You might not have as much scope to shape or define what you work onāespecially early in your career.
What this means for you:
Youāll have more support and guidance, but less autonomy.
Projects often move slowly due to approvals, stakeholders, and legacy systems.
Youāll probably be responsible for a very specific area, feature, or slice of the product.
If you want to appeal to enterprise teams:
Emphasize your ability to work with stakeholders and navigate complexity.
Highlight strong collaboration and communication skills. Enterprise means cross-functional teams, alignment, and often documentation-heavy processes.
Demonstrate attention to detail and ability to work within existing systems or constraints.
Show that you value reliability and thoroughness over speed and scrappiness.
Some people thrive in these environments, especially if they value stability, mentorship, and long-term development. But if you want to move fast or own a large slice of the process, this may not be the right fit.
Consumer-Facing Roles: Visual Polish + Behavioral Design
Consumer-facing products are what you see on your phone every day: Spotify, TikTok, Netflix, Duolingo, Amazon. You are the user.
What this means for you:
These apps have high standards. Users are used to best-in-class polish, interactions, and flows.
Visual design and prototyping matter a lot. Microinteractions, delightful moments, animationsāthese are part of the bar.
Youāll often be designing to influence behavior: complete a purchase, sign up, invite friends, return daily. That means behavioral psychology and marketing principles matter.
Why itās tough to break in as a junior:
These companies hire very selectively and often donāt have many (or any) early-career roles.
Graduate programs exist (like Duolingoās), but competition is extremely high.
Most bootcamp projects donāt meet the quality bar for visual design, UX, or prototyping here.
That said, consumer-facing startup roles are more accessibleābut still require strong visual skills. If your portfolio is all mobile apps and none of them feel ready to go live tomorrow, youāll struggle in this quadrant.
You can show potential here by:
Redesigning real-world flows (like checkout or onboarding).
Showcasing high quality animations, interactions and attention to detail.
Talking through behavioral choices, emotional responses and how they affect metrics.
Portfolio examples
Ruby Wu: Rubyās portfolio is more polished then some senior portfolios Iāve seen. While not married to a consumer-facing role (as per her about) she will certainly be able to land roles working on a consumer-facing product with this portfolio.
Dexter Sulit: Dexter absolutely masters prototyping and showcases a high visual quality. Especially startups in the consumer-facing space will love these traits.
Business-Facing Roles: Problem Solving Over Polish
B2B tools and internal platforms are made for businessesānot everyday users. Think admin dashboards, CRMs, developer tools, analytics interfaces, logistics platforms, and so on.
What this means for you:
Users are professionals trying to do a job. If your design saves them time or prevents an error, thatās a win.
UX and systems thinking matter more than visual polish. These tools need to be fast, reliable, and intuitiveāeven if theyāre not sexy.
Complex information, edge cases, and scalability are big themes here.
Internal tools sit at the far end of this spectrum: tools built for a companyās own staff, often replacing spreadsheets or outdated workflows. These tools almost never need heavy visual design, but they benefit massively from thoughtful UX and interaction design.
If you want to appeal to business-facing roles:
Showcase projects that deal with complexity, data, edge cases, or productivity.
Emphasize your UX process, problem solving, and ability to design scalable systems.
A āpolished mobile appā wonāt go far here. Instead, show a dashboard redesign, a workflow tool, or even a fictional enterprise tool.
Use storytelling to highlight tradeoffs and constraintsānot just aesthetics.
Portfolio examples
Aran Kim: Aran shows a great sense for business software in her projects positioning herself that would probably appeal to both startups and enterprises alike.
Serena Li: Serenaās portfolio feels almost to playful for a business-facing fit but the work is so convincing and appealing that she is definitely not gonna get passed on for an interview in most roles that are more business-leaning.
Final Thoughts: So Where Do You Fit?
Take a step back and look at your portfolio. Where do your projects sit on this matrix?
Are they mostly mobile apps with playful visuals and light UX? Youāre probably targeting the consumer-facing quadrantāmaybe even without realizing it.
Are you showing dashboards, workflow tools, or complex systems with strong rationale? Then youāre likely better suited for business-facing roles.
Do you enjoy fast-paced, messy projects? Startups might be your speed. Do you prefer structure, guidance, and specialization? Then enterprise could be right.
This matrix doesnāt tell you where you have to beāit helps you spot mismatches.
Because one of the most frustrating things you can do is apply for roles that youāre not positioning yourself for.
Positioning also sometimes means realizing that your portfolio isnāt showcasing your real strengthsāor that your current strengths might point you in a different direction than you expected.
And once you know what kind of companies and roles are the right fit for you, everything elseāyour positioning, your portfolio, your outreachābecomes easier.
Want to figure out your best-fit role and how to stand out?
I run a live workshop soon where we break this down in depth. Youāll walk away with clarity on your profile, direction, and how to stand out for the roles youāre actually a fit for. Get tickets for it here. Use the code UXCEL15 to get 15% off!
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š Portfolio Showcase
Today: Matt Fredette
Mattās portfolio is a great reminder that you donāt need flash to leave a strong impression ā just clear thinking, solid design, and a bit of restraint.
His work is clean, grounded, and thoughtful. He doesnāt try to do too much, and as a result, whatās there really shines. If youāre looking for an example of a junior designer who understands how to tell a story and stay focused on the essentials ā Mattās portfolio is a great one to study.
Letās take a closer look at what heās doing well ā and where I see opportunities to take it to the next level.
Thatās it for this weekāthanks so much for the support! ā„ļø
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Keep kicking doors open and see you next week!
- Florian
