Hey and welcome back to another week! 👋 

In this issue:

• Sounds Wrong But It Works: Apply less. Instead target better and make your profile ready for the jobs that matter.

• Harsha’s Portfolio: An early-career designer nailing personality and quality work in his portfolio.

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Why 10 Targeted Applications Beat 100 Random Ones 🎯

If you’re job hunting in 2025, it’s tempting to cast the widest net possible. Apply to 100 roles, and surely one will stick — right?

In reality, the opposite often works better. I’ve seen over and over again, both through mentoring and reviewing portfolios, that designers who apply more selectively often land interviews faster than those who play the numbers game.

But there’s a catch. Applying to fewer roles only works if you’ve done the foundational work to stand out to the ones you do apply to. Without clear positioning, without the right story across your resume, portfolio, and profile, you’ll just end up with fewer rejections — not more interviews.

This is especially hard for early-career designers. You may not yet have much experience shaping your profile organically, but you can still do a lot to create the same effect.

This guide walks through why a targeted approach works, and how to actually put it into practice.

Step 1: Position Yourself Clearly

Before you even open LinkedIn, you need to know who you are as a designer — and who you’re for.

That means asking yourself questions like:

• Do I want to design consumer-facing mobile apps or complex B2B tools?

• Am I strongest in visual polish, systems thinking, or research?

• Are there industries I’m especially interested in — healthcare, finance, education?

• What case studies do I already have that support this direction?

This isn’t about picking one company or one product. It’s about identifying your lane. I wrote in detail about how to position yourself before, and this is where it pays off: your positioning is the foundation of every application you send.

Once you’ve clarified it, put it into words. Use your LinkedIn headline to say more than just “Product Designer.” Even “Product Designer focused on B2B SaaS products” will set you apart immediately. This alone isn’t enough to land you interviews — but it establishes a consistent story across all your touchpoints.

Update your resume so your experience and skills reinforce this narrative. Make sure your portfolio introduction does the same. Curate your projects to back up your claims.

This is arguably the hardest step. If you nail it, you’ve already done at least half the work.

Step 2: Understand the Fit

Now that you know your lane, start identifying companies and roles that actually match it.

This is where many people go wrong. If you’re a B2B SaaS-focused designer but you apply to 50 consumer-facing mobile app jobs, you’ll almost always get rejected — no matter how good your work is. The mismatch is obvious, and companies in 2025 have the luxury of being picky.

So do your research:

• Use LinkedIn job search filters to narrow by industry, product type, or seniority.

• Explore Crunchbase or Wellfound if you’re interested in startups.

• Look at similar companies to ones you admire. If you’re targeting Linear, what other productivity tools are in the same space?

Build filters based on what you see repeating in the roles you want. As long as you haven’t niched down too far, you should still find plenty of jobs to apply for.

Location, visa status & job title matter too

Recruiters often auto-filter candidates by basic criteria like location, job title, or visa eligibility. If you don’t have work authorization for a country, 99% of companies won’t take the risk, even if you’re otherwise a great fit. And if your resume says “UX Designer” but they’re searching for “Product Designer,” you might get missed — not all recruiters know the difference. Be deliberate about matching your profile to the language the market uses.

Step 3: Apply Early and Selectively

At this stage, you’ve done the hard work. The application process itself becomes much simpler.

Because your profile is already aligned to the roles you want, you don’t need to rewrite your resume from scratch every time. You don’t need to shoehorn in skills you don’t have. If you feel like you do need to tailor extensively, that’s a sign the role isn’t a good fit right now.

Instead, focus on timing. In a competitive market, being among the first applicants matters. Set LinkedIn and Google Alerts for new postings in your niche. Prioritize quality over volume: send 10 thoughtful applications that are a strong fit, not 100 generic ones that waste your energy.

At most, tweak the basics — adjust the job title if the company uses different terminology, or highlight one skill more prominently if it’s clearly emphasized in the description. But don’t overdo it.

Still not getting interviews?

Bad news: you likely didn’t execute Step 1 properly. If recruiters and hiring managers aren’t reaching out, they’re not seeing the fit. It doesn’t matter that you believe you’re a fit — they have to believe it.

There can be other factors too, such as the quality of your work itself (especially your visuals, as I explained in another article). But if you’re getting zero traction, revisit your positioning first.

Step 4: Build Long-Term Leverage Through Networking

The other half of the strategy is proactive and long-term: build connections inside the kinds of companies you want to work for.

This doesn’t mean asking for referrals right away. It means reaching out to designers doing the work you’d like to do, and starting conversations. Ask about their experience with the product, their workflow, or even a new technology their company is experimenting with. Keep it genuine — avoid the transactional “can you get me a job?” ask.

Why? Because when roles do open up — sometimes months later — you’ll already have context and a name inside the company. That can make all the difference.

This is the same principle I wrote about in my take on networking: play the long game. Job hunts can take months, and the connections you make now may pay off later.

For startups, you can even take it further: record a short Loom video suggesting a product improvement, or share a mini-case study that shows your thinking. These kinds of proactive gestures don’t work as well for enterprises, but for smaller teams, they can make you stand out.

Why This Works Better Than the Numbers Game

Sending 100 random applications is a recipe for frustration. Even if you’ve positioned yourself well, most of those roles won’t fit — and you’ll drown in rejections.

But if you’ve clarified your positioning, aligned your profile, targeted the right companies, and applied early, then 10 carefully chosen applications can easily outperform those 100.

You won’t get interviews for every one of them. But if even half turn into conversations, you’ll already be far ahead of the 80–90% of designers in 2025 who struggle to land interviews at all.

And that’s the real goal: not to apply everywhere, but to get in the room where you’re actually a fit.

One last thing: remember that this approach only works if you’ve done the hard positioning work first. Without it, you’ll blend in — whether you apply to 10 roles or 100. But if you’ve put in the effort to clarify who you are and who you’re for, the targeted strategy isn’t just less stressful. It’s more effective.

👀 Portfolio Showcase

Today: Harsha Gowda

Harsha Gowda’s portfolio is a standout example of early-career creativity meeting thoughtful presentation.

A student and product designer based in Indianapolis, Harsha is still in university — but his work already feels strikingly mature. I actually first came across him through Girlfriend Guide, a vibe-coded side project he worked on with a group. It’s a playful, thoughtful, and surprisingly polished little product that captures notes on how to be a better partner — and it immediately showed me the creativity and craft Harsha brings to his work.

That same spirit carries into his portfolio. While you can still tell he’s early in his career, the level of polish, personality, and storytelling already sets him apart from most peers at his stage. And by the time he graduates, it’s clear he’ll have even more under his belt than many early-career designers entering the field.

Let’s take a closer look at what Harsha is doing well — and two areas where tightening up could take his portfolio to the next level.

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

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• Book an in-depth portfolio or resume review with me

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• Book a quick 15 min chat to ask a question and see if we vibe

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