An excellent portfolio gets noticed, but it’s not always the only factor standing between a designer and an offer. The resume, cover letter, and a little pre-application research all count, too. Here are a few simple steps to take before you submit your application.
1. Audit Your Portfolio First
Don’t show every project you’ve ever done. Instead, choose 8-12 of your best, most relevant work samples. Focus on case studies that show your process and decision-making, rather than just beautiful final visuals. Employers are interested in your thinking, not just your rendering. One strong case study that includes sketches, iterations, and reasoning behind your final decision will outperform five perfect mockups with no context.
Tailor your portfolio to the role you’re applying for. An agency portfolio should look different from one aimed at an in-house or product design role because employers evaluate different skills. If the agency is reading it on their own, they are looking for depth of brands and problems. If the in-house or product team is reading it, they are looking for depth of one system, so lead with that story.
2. Rework Your Resume for the Specific Role
Always make your resume ATS-friendly and easy to scan, especially when applying to larger companies. Wherever possible, highlight the tools you use every day (Canva, Figma, Adobe Suite, etc.), your area of specialization, and measurable results.
Recruiters can get hundreds of applications for a single job opening, meaning they can spend just seconds looking at each one. So anything on the resume that’s vague or below the fold likely will not be read. Mirror the language used in the job posting, but only if it actually reflects your experience. It’s one of the easiest ways to show that you’re a strong match for the role.
Creating a tailored resume doesn’t have to mean starting over for every application. Many tools let you import an existing resume or LinkedIn profile, so you can quickly update keywords, skills, and achievements for each role while keeping the overall structure intact.
3. Craft a Cover Letter that Tells a Story
Unfortunately, most designers either skip the cover letter or treat it as an afterthought. It’s one of the few chances in an application where you can demonstrate your personality, communication skills, and the thinking behind your work. A great cover letter includes three things: a concise explanation of why you’re applying to that company, one compelling project story, and a tone that reflects your design style. It isn’t just another box to tick.
If you are staring at a blank page, AI-assisted cover letter builders can help you generate a tailored first draft based on the job description. You can then further review, edit, and personalize the draft to reflect your own voice and experience.
A Few Cover Letter Builders Worth Trying
1. CVwizard
CVwizard is best suited to job seekers who want a complete, all-in-one job search toolkit that speeds up the process of applying for jobs. . Its cover letter builder generates a tailored first draft directly from the job description. You can then review and personalize it so that it matches your skills and experience exactly.
Free resume templates are also available on the free plan so you can create a cohesive application without f piecing your application together across different tools.
What makes it worth a second look, specifically for designers, is that it goes beyond the cover letter. CVwizard also bundles a matching resume builder, job vacancy alerts, and a built-in application tracker into the same platform. So you can build your materials, apply, and keep track of where each application stands without juggling separate tools. That’s a genuine time-saver if you are applying broadly across agencies and in-house roles simultaneously.
2. Zety
Zety offers a cover letter builder with a large library of pre-written, industry-specific opening and closing lines. This is useful if you know what you want to say about a project but struggle with how to frame the introduction or the sign-off. Its built-in content checker also flags vague or overly generic phrasing, which is an easy trap to fall into when you are adapting the same core letter for several similar roles.
Where Zety falls a little short for designers is personality. The suggested phrasing is professional but fairly formal, so you’ll likely need to loosen the tone in places to make it sound like an actual design voice rather than a standard business letter. It’s a better starting point than a blank page, but expect to do some rewriting.
3. Novoresume
Novoresume keeps its cover letter builder simple and structured, walking you through a clear introduction, body, and closing with short prompts for each section. For a graphic designer, that structure is genuinely useful, since it’s easy to ramble when you’re excited about a project and lose the reader before you get to the point.
The tradeoff is that Novoresume offers less pre-written content than some competitors, so you are doing more of the actual writing yourself. That is not necessarily a downside if you already have a clear story to tell, but it means less hand-holding if you are starting from nothing.
4. Kickresume
Kickresume’s AI writing assistant can generate a full cover letter draft from a short description of the job and your background, which is a fast way to get past the first blank page. It also lets you browse real cover letter examples from people in similar creative fields, which can be a useful reference for tone even if you end up writing your own from scratch.
The generated drafts tend to read a little generic before editing, so treat it as a rough first pass rather than a finished letter. It works best when you already know the one project story you want to tell and just need help getting the structure down quickly.
None of these tools replace an honest, specific reason for wanting the job, but they can take the blank-page problem off your plate, which leaves you more time to focus on the parts of the letter only you can write.
4. Study the Company’s Design Language
Take a few minutes to review the company’s branding, recent campaigns, and overall aesthetic before applying. Pay attention to the consistency of its messaging, typography, and color palette, and whether its visual style leans more conservative or experimental. This research pays off twice: once when writing the cover letter, and again during interviews if you’re asked to discuss the company’s work.
5. Assess Their Hiring Process
Check Glassdoor or LinkedIn to understand what the hiring process typically looks like. Many designer roles include take-home assignments or live design exercises. Knowing this in advance helps you prepare effectively, whether that means refining your portfolio or setting aside enough time to complete the challenge.
6. Pick 2 to 3 Portfolio Pieces You Can Talk Through in Depth
Interviewers care just as much about how you think as what you designed. Be prepared to walk through two or three of your best projects: what decisions were made, what were the constraints, and how feedback was dealt with. A polished slide is not enough on its own.
7. Clean Up Your Online Presence
Ensure that your LinkedIn profile, portfolio site, and social media profiles are all consistent and up to date before a recruiter views them. If you have any testimonials or recommendations, feature them. These are simple trust signals that can make a difference in a competitive hiring process.
8. If You Get a Design Challenge, Time-Box It
Don’t overdeliver in an attempt to impress. Most design challenges are designed with an expected time commitment in mind. Spending significantly longer than requested may reflect poor judgment rather than dedication. If time permits, ask clarifying questions. It shows that you think critically before jumping into execution.
Begin with One Task This Week
Preparing for a job application isn’t one big task—it’s a series of small ones. Your portfolio, resume, cover letter, research, and interview preparation all work together. You don’t have to tackle everything at once. Choose one to improve this week, and if you’ve been procrastinating on the cover letter, there’s no better time to get started.
Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients.
His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8.
He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
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Bogdan Sandu is a seasoned designer who has been designing websites since 2008. Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients. His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8. He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
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