The market is hard. You are not the problem.

If you've been applying and not hearing back I just want to say:

The market is hard right now. Positions are disappearing before they're filled. Every role has hundreds of applicants. Senior titles are being attached to mid-level budgets. Hiring freezes are very real.

None of this is a reflection of your value.

I want you to sit with that before we continue.

The difficulty you're experiencing in this job market is not evidence that you aren't good enough. It is absolutely not. It's evidence that you're job hunting in one of the most challenging design markets in recent memory. They are two completely different things and it's very easy to confuse them.

What I keep seeing

I work with designers every week. Mid-level, senior, experienced, talented designers that are all experiencing this.

They apply and face rejection over and over. It becomes exhausting. It's starts to change their perception of things. They look at their own portfolio and wonder if it's good enough instead of knowing it is.

The market didn't change their skills. Its changed how they see themselves.

And that's the thing worth fixing.

The exercise that changes everything

I was working with a designer who was feeling stuck. Experienced, capable, with a great portfolio but down by months of silence from applications.

In a recent session we didn't talk about the job market or their portfolio. We did something simpler.

I said: let's talk about you.

We made a list. Every role they'd held, skill they'd developed, every project they were proud of, every problem they'd solved, every team they'd influenced. All of it. We wrote it down without editing or filtering. Just got it out of their head and onto the page.

The list was really long. And it was amazing.

Just looking at it, seeing everything they'd done and learned and built laid out in front of them they sat back, smiled and said "I actually have a lot to offer."

Yes. You do.

That list existed before we made it. The experience was always there. What changed was that they could finally see it clearly.

Try this yourself

Before you send another application or refresh another job board do this first.

Open a blank doc. Go through every role you've held and write down what you did, what you learned, the value you brought, the skills you developed, programs you mastered and a specific success from that time. Don't edit. Don't filter. Don't decide what's relevant yet. Just write it down.

Then read it back. Out loud.

You'll find things you forgot you knew. Skills that you undersold. Experiences that are more valuable than the market has been making you feel lately. Stories you haven't been telling because you didn't think they were worth telling any longer.

They are worth telling. You just need to see them again.

One more thing

I did this myself. When I was preparing for interviews earlier in my career I realized I couldn't talk about myself clearly. So I went back through every job I'd ever had and wrote it all down. What I did, what I built, who I worked with, what I was proud of. I turned those experiences into stories I could tell with confidence. It was so empowering.

It changed how I showed up in every room after that.

Not because the experience was new. Because I finally understood what I was carrying.

You've been building something valuable for years. The market being difficult right now doesn't change that. Not one bit.

Go make the list.

Talk soon, Anthony

When you're ready to take that list and turn it into a portfolio and career story that actually lands that's exactly what a 1:1 strategy session is for. We'll work through your specific situation and build a clear plan for your next move.

→ Book a 1:1 Career Strategy Session — $175 "The most clarity I've had in my career in years."

P.S. The Mid-Level Case Study Playbook is almost in your hands. I'll have it ready very soon keep an eye on your inbox.