I want to pull back the curtain a little today.A few people have asked me how I come up with what to write about.The honest answer is that I don't.You do.Every post I've written in the last month came from a real conversation I had that week.Someone...

There are two kinds of skills every senior designer builds across a career.The first is craft skills.Design systems. Stakeholder management. Shipping complex products at scale. Driving measurable outcomes. Getting promoted on merit.Most designers wit...

I want to tell you something I see over and over again with the designers I speak to.They have tried things.Not just applied and hoped.Actually tried.$500 resume rewrites. Job search courses. Career coaches. LinkedIn profile audits. Webinar after web...

I want to pick up on something I touched on in my email last night.A designer I worked with recently had a 35% response rate on his warm outreach.Hiring managers were replying to him.He was not getting interviews.That gap confused him. He was doing t...

I want to tell you what is actually happening in the room when you get that email.Not the version they put in the rejection template.The real version.I have been on both sides of this conversation. As a candidate who kept hitting final rounds without...

I want to share something I've been sitting with after the last few weeks.I've spoken to 243 designers in the last month.Not a course. Not a webinar. Real one-on-one conversations, most of them on LinkedIn.(Yes, i read and reply to every single one o...

Joseph here.A lot of experienced designers treat their portfolio like a gallery.Here are the nice screens.Here is the process.Here is the double diamond.Here is the timeline.Here are the artefacts.Then they hope the hiring manager will connect the do...

Nine of you took the time to fill out my survey this past week. I read every single response. Some twice.One was a 27-year veteran nine months into a layoff, telling me what you actually need is representation, not coaching. Another had just landed a...

Joseph here.Here’s something I wish more experienced designers understood.When a hiring manager looks at your portfolio, resume, or LinkedIn, they are not trying to admire your career.They are trying to answer a much more specific question:“Is this p...

Joseph here.I’m opening 6 spots for the June intake of The Backdoor, and I wanted to share it with you directly.This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while.For the last year and a half, I’ve tried a few different ways of helping designers...