Ancient Gaming

I reviewed a 100 plus applications since last week for a senior product designer position. Here is a few insight and advices: 1 - Have a portfolio I know it might sound evident, but it’s a designer position, no portfolio means we cannot see your work and skills as a designer… Doesn’t matter if it’s a pdf with few images and short description and a link, or a figma file! Just SHOW YOUR WORK (and avoid angled mockups, i need to see details) 2 - Pay attention to your portfolio Another one that seams logic. Password protection without sharing the password, broken links, not optimised for mobile… Your portfolio is a reflection of yourself and your work. First impression matters, and a bad portfolio will mean we won’t take the time to dig deeper in the work. It doesn’t need to be a piece of art, but have the basics covered, pay attention to the details that matters. 3 - Show the Impact of your work Get away from the cookie cutter case study, design process is chaos and time is the most valuable ressource and KPI. You won’t always have time to do wireframes, or Personas, or even research. What matters is your ability to deliver results, know the business and know the impact of your work. Show some numbers, actually start with it! Show your ability to identify quick wins. I will automatically meet someone that shows a 1 page redesign of a slider that created 150% increase conversion over someone that do 10 pages on a new feature without explaining how did their work moved the needle. 4 - Credits Even if you are a senior IC, design is rarely a one man job. List the people your worked with on a project, even non-designers. They might be your best reference in getting the job you applied for. 5 - Cover letters I know it’s a really painfull step… And my take might not work for every hiring manager or companies… But instead of asking chatgpt to write it for you, try to tell more about you, who you are and what you like. Tell us for example why you want to change industry, what drives you. Relevant experiences aren’t always professional experiences. Made a failed attempt at a start up? Tell us why it failed and what you learned. Making board games on your own during the weekend, i want to learn more! Playing D&D as a dungeon master? Could be super usefull in our domain. Played World of Warcraft for 10.000 hours? Let’s discuss too! Hope this helps some of you looking for a job now. Follow for more advices and otherwise i’m still looking for a senior product designer at Ancient Gaming preferably with Ecommmerce &/or Gaming experience within 3h of CET timezone. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to expand on some of the things i listed above.