Reviewed a resume this week from a designer with 20+ years of experience.

11 pages.

Not a typo. Eleven.

Every page looked roughly the same. Skill keywords. Tool names. Software lists. Short descriptions of what he did at each company.

In terms of actual impact... what a hiring manager would stop scrolling for... maybe 10% of those 11 pages carried real weight.

The rest was noise.

So we picked one project and rebuilt it on the call.

He'd worked on a financial advisory platform for a major bank. Half a million customers. $51 billion balance sheet. The whole advisory process was still paper-based before he came in.

"Design and further development of a complex web-based tool."

That was the original resume line.

After 45 minutes of me asking him questions... what was broken before you arrived, who was the client, what scale are we talking about, what changed...

He had a full story.

Led the UX transformation of an analog advisory process into a structured digital consultation platform. Rolled out bankwide. Five departments. Two on-site workshops. Partnered with executive stakeholders across wealth management and finance divisions. Work later presented to the board.

Same designer. Same project. Same experience.

Completely different signal.

His face changed when he saw the before and after side by side.

"I need to use this for all my portfolio pieces."

Yeah. That's usually what happens.

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If your resume reads like a list of tools you've used and tasks you've completed, a recruiter with 100 candidates in the queue is going to spend about 7 seconds on you.

There's a version of your experience that makes them stop.

It's probably not the one you have written down right now.

DM me BACKDOOR and I'll show you how to surface it.

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There's a free guide I wrote about why experienced designers get stuck. Even with strong backgrounds and real experience. It's called The Wall.

Grab it here: https://sendfox.com/lp/3oxogd