Designer Job Search Tips & Best Practices

Once you’ve gotten all your job search materials together (resume, basic cover letter and LinkedIn profile), you’re all ready to set out in search of your first job. So what do you do next? Where do you find the jobs for which you can apply? As with so many things in today’s world, the answer lies in that giant agglomeration of connected computers known as the internet. The good news is that you won’t have to go knocking on doors (and have them slammed in your face); the bad news is that an online job search can feel very impersonal and you can’t go into it expecting even the most basic of common courtesies like rejection letters. But it’s how you get employment in the internet age, and the following guide should get you started on where to look for design jobs that will suit you in the pursuit of your ultimate goal, your first honest-to-goodness position as a designer. 

Indeed

The most logical place to begin is at the beginning, and, when it comes to searching for jobs, that means the inevitable number one job board in the world, with its 300 million unique visitors every month, Indeed. That number is from Indeed’s own website, which also offers the factoid that there are 245 million resumes posted on the site. Although pointedly the Indeed home page doesn’t offer comparable statistics about the number of people it places in in field and career-suitable roles, there’s not much arguing with the sheer volume of openings advertised on the site.

Indeed has its critics, and, on the other hand, many people have found work through Indeed postings. That said, if there is a site responsible for the feeling that you’re shooting resumes out into a massive black void of nothingness, that would be Indeed. (You want proof that black holes exist? Talk to someone who’s been using Indeed to find a job for a few months.) The reasons for this aren’t hard to discern: there are a lot of jobs on Indeed that are past their “sell by” dates, and the site’s “easily apply” feature makes it phenomenally easy to send in exactly the kind of application that any self-respecting ATS (application tracking system) bot would toss directly in its virtual circular file of dashed hopes. Among Indeed’s other defects are annoying requests that applicants complete “assessments” for certain openings: you can’t be blamed for finding these an insult to your intelligence, skill set and experience, but at least you don’t have to complete each of these more than once. Although it can seem like a one-stop solution to your job-hunting needs, Indeed is anything but that.

That said, Indeed does make some of the job-hunting process easier. It will email you daily with openings its algorithm thinks may be suited to you (beware: they often are not, as the algorithm casts its keyword net very wide; the algorithm also has an amusing sense of what a “local” job is), which certainly is convenient. If you read the job descriptions carefully, weed out which ones aren’t for you (that’s going to be most of them) and apply the hard way using a tailored resume and cover letter to the jobs that honestly appeal to you, you stand a chance of some success. Just don’t make the effort of putting all your eggs into one job board basket, especially if that basket is Indeed. 

LinkedIn

The other behemoth in the job-search universe is LinkedIn. Like Indeed, it covers just about every industry there is, so not only designers are availing themselves of its possibilities. Of course, the entire point of crafting a LinkedIn profile is so that it will get you hired. Once you’ve inputted what kind of work it is you’re seeking, LinkedIn will send you notifications of jobs both internally and via email. You’ll likely notice fewer possibilities on LinkedIn than you did on Indeed: the algorithm is quite a bit pickier when it comes to matching your search criteria with available openings.

LinkedIn can be used in a number of other ways as well. You can set up a game plan of posting to your profile and relentlessly optimizing it in the hopes that you can bring work to you rather than shooting out those emails into that black void of nothingness. There’s also a network of contacts you should be developing that pretty much exists to put you in touch with job leads. You can also use LinkedIn to research companies and make it a stepping stone to company websites and their own job pages, which may contain offerings not to be found elsewhere.

LinkedIn also offers a paid premium subscription tier that, while expensive for job-seekers watching their pennies (expensive as in $40.00 a month), can provide you with a lot of information, some of which may prove extremely useful to you in your job search. A one-month free trial is available, so you can test-drive the car and see whether it’s anything you’d find useful before having to grease LinkedIn’s metaphoric palm, and, as such, is probably worth investigating once you’ve run through the free services the site has available. 

Note that, while LinkedIn can be used in a number of ways, it’s not an either/or: you need to pursue all the various avenues the site offers you, time-consuming though that may turn out to be. Despite all the possibilities, you should also be aware that LinkedIn isn’t a basket in which you can put all your eggs, either.

Dribbble

Although the spelling of the name and the relentless use of the basketball metaphor is decidedly twee, Dribbble, in addition to being a leading portfolio site for designers, also maintains a job board that, unlike Indeed and LinkedIn, is devoted to openings for designers of most ilks. Dribbble calls itself the number one job board for creatives, and has the advantage over the more generic sites of being tailored specifically by designers to the needs of designers. You can indeed conclude that people serious about a search for designers are more likely to look to a site like Dribbble than LinkedIn and Indeed for discovering new talent.

You can’t, however, just sign up for Dribbble and start using it: obtaining a fully functional designer account requires either an invitation from someone who is already a member (the basketball metaphor calls this getting drafted) or that you submit a portfolio and a profile to be vetted by those in charge of the platform. Dribbble prides itself on a degree of exclusivity, and there is some cachet attached to being on the site. As a result, the process for getting a profile set up on Dribbble is probably worth it. The site also enables potential employers to come to you by making your profile available for perusal. You can use the job board without being fully established on the platform, however. It’s easy to use, and will generally route you to companies’ sites to submit your tailored resume and cover letter.

Dribbble also offers a paid tier (at a reasonable $5.00 per month) that offers increased profile functionality, “prioritized discoverability” and access to their freelance job board. There’s a free one-month trial available, although the cost is nowhere as potentially ruinous as that of LinkedIn Premium, making it well worth investigating once you’ve broken into the Dribbble universe.

Behance

Behance is another profile site with a job board, like Dribbble, as well as a name that reminds one constantly of a certain famous pop singer. (One does wonder who’s responsible for naming these things.) Unlike Dribble, Behance is free to use and anyone can post their portfiolio on the platform. There’s no drafting or vetting (or cachet attached to being on the site.) The job board is easy to navigate, and takes you either to third-party sites to complete applications or to Behance’s own application protocol. Behance also offers means for potential employers to locate designers and glance through their portfolios. That may raise the question of whether one should pursue Behance or Dribbble. Behance won’t cost you anything, and anyone can get their profile posted on the platform, two good reasons to pursue it. The bottom line, however, is that the two platforms aren’t entirely interchangeable (Behance, for example, makes it easier to present a case study to go with your work), and, so, while you’re dividing your eggs between baskets, you should at the very least investigate both platforms.

Wellfound

Formerly known as AngelList Talent, Wellfound curates a job board designed to bring startups at all stages of their development into touch with the talent they require. That includes product designers, graphic designers and UX/UI designers, along with a host of other tech roles. For someone looking to work for a younger and smaller company, Wellfound is an outstanding source of job leads. The site operates like so many others: you fill out a profile, you apply for jobs using leads you find on a job board, and recruiters can come to you by searching Wellfound’s database of eight million potential candidates. A novelty to Wellfound’s profiles is a “culture” tab, which allows you to put your finger on what kind of startup will interest you and in which types of company culture do you want to work. This takes into account what are intangibles on Indeed and LinkedIn and can, in the opinion of the people who make Wellfound tick, make for better professional marriages

Fashion Designer Job Boards

Although Indeed and LinkedIn offer listings for fashion professionals and designers, Dribbble, Behance, and Wellfound are all geared towards digital designers. Fashion designers, therefore, have to look elsewhere, and they needn’t look far to find job boards devoted to all aspects of the fashion industry, including design. Among the foremost possibilities are The Business of Fashion, a site that features the latest news for the fashion and beauty communities, and maintains a job board. Another option is Fashion United, a site that also offers cutting-edge (ouch!) fashion news in addition to a job board of its own. Finally, you might also check out the offerings over at Vogue Business Talent (voguebusiness.com), which has quite a few listings for luxury brands and international positions. Quite a few of these may not be entry-level, but they can give you something to dream about as you plan your career trajectory.

Learn the Skills to Become a Designer at Noble Desktop

If you wish to become a designer, Noble Desktop, a tech and design school based in New York that teaches worldwide thanks to the wonders of the internet, is available to give you the education you need to get started in this exciting field. Noble teaches certificate programs in numerous aspects of design and the technology that makes design possible in the contemporary world. These certificate programs offer comprehensive instruction in their topics and will arm you for the job market in whichever aspect of design interests you.

Noble has certificate programs in graphic design (the Adobe trio of Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator), digital design (the main troika of Adobe programs plus Figma for UI design), UX & UI design, and motion graphics. All these programs feature small class sizes in order to make sure that each student receives ample attention from the instructor, and can be taken either in-person in New York or online from anywhere over the 85% of the Earth’s surface that is reached by the internet (plus the International Space Station.) Classes at Noble Desktop include a free retake option, which can be useful as a refresher course or as a means of maximizing what you learn from fast-paced classes. Noble’s instructors are all experts in their fields and often working professionals whose experience is invaluable when they mentor students in the school’s certificate programs 1-to-1.

Noble offers further design courses that are briefer than the certificate programs. You may also wish to consult Noble’s Learning Hub for a wealth of information on how to learn to be a designer.