Three topics I often discuss with mentees

I’ve been a mentor since 2018 on UXPA, Revive, and ADPList. Thanks to these amazing communities I’ve been lucky enough to meet and exchange ideas with a lot of people. The best thing is when someone you met sends you a message thanking you because they found a job, they improved their portfolio, or because after a conversation with you they feel unblocked and empowered. Every time this happens, a big smile appears on my face. I’ve had incredible mentors in my life that constantly help me with everything, and I know how valuable having these conversations is, so I get proud when I know I helped someone and gave something back to the design community.

There are a few topics that keep coming when I speak with junior designers, and I thought to write my thoughts about the following ones to share them with a broader audience and spark new conversations:

• Getting that first design position
• Imposter Syndrome
• Getting stakeholders buy-in

Let’s get into it.

Getting that first design position

Image description: a comic representing an octopus designer who is searching for a job using the laptop, drinking coffee.

You have everything you need: a good portfolio, excitement to start a new career, and willingness to learn, but it’s taking a while to get that first offer.

I’m not going to write about how to best present yourself to a company, how to put together an effective portfolio, and how to prepare for design interviews. There are a lot of good articles, videos, and resources about this online. I’ll add a list to the bottom of this article, so you can have references in case you are preparing for interviews. Let’s assume you already have everything in place, you have some experience interviewing, and you got feedback from companies that didn’t progress with you which helped you perfecting your projects, your portfolio, and how to present yourself.

Let’s start by dealing with rejection. Sometimes not getting a job doesn’t depend on you. Being rejected sucks, but what happens almost all the times is that companies have a precise idea of the person they want to bring in, according to their team’s needs, and even if you are great and you smash it during the interview, sometimes there just isn’t a match. I know it’s frustrating, especially after you’ve put a lot of…