Is Your Case Study a Barrier or a Breakthrough?

You’ve sent out applications for every role you feel qualified for. You’ve tapped your network — friends, mentors, anyone rooting for you. But the responses are the same: silence or “no.”

The job market feels tighter than ever, and every application seems to vanish into a black hole. Time feels frozen, and with each passing day, your projects start to feel outdated. The pressure builds. Self-doubt creeps in. Imposter syndrome piles on.

Then one day, you ask a trusted friend, not a recruiter, but someone who knows what a strong case study should communicate, to review your portfolio. Their questions sting. They don’t understand your choices, your reasoning, or how you moved from point A to point B.

That’s when it clicks.
Your case study isn’t telling a story. It’s just a list of steps. Surface-level.

You go back and revise. You add context, reasoning, validation, and the connections between your actions and outcomes. It’s not an overnight miracle — you don’t land a job the next day — but something shifts. You feel more confident.

You send out a few more applications. This time, responses trickle in. Maybe a recruiter reaches out. Maybe someone sends encouragement. The path forward feels clearer.

Your case study is no longer a barrier. It’s a tool — one that shows your process, your skills, and your approach. 

Why Surface-Level Case Studies Don’t Get You Interviews

On the surface, your case study might look polished: clean layout, screenshots, maybe even a catchy title. But if it only reads like a checklist of steps — “I did research, I made personas, I designed wireframes” — then it’s not giving employers what they actually need.

Hiring managers and recruiters aren’t scanning for deliverables. They want to see your thinking:

  • Why did you make those choices?

  • What insights shaped your decisions?

  • How did your work lead to outcomes?

Without that narrative, your work can come across as generic, more like a school assignment than real-world problem-solving.

Here’s the difference:

  • Surface-level case study: “I interviewed 5 users and created personas. Then I made wireframes and tested them.”

  • Strong case study: “After interviewing 5 users, I discovered that most felt overwhelmed by onboarding. I created two personas to represent their different needs. These insights shaped my wireframes — I simplified onboarding for one group and added progressive disclosure for the other. In testing, this reduced drop-off rates by 30%.”

See the shift? The first example is just a list of tasks. The second connects actions to outcomes and proves you can solve problems.

This is what employers care about. Not just what you did, but how you think.

Turning Your Case Study Into a Breakthrough

If your portfolio feels stuck, here’s how to move it forward:

  1. Add context. Explain the problem you were solving and why it mattered.

  2. Show reasoning. Don’t just show what you did — explain why you did it.

  3. Highlight outcomes. Connect your design choices to real impact, even small wins.

  4. Keep it human. Write like you’re telling the story of how you solved a problem, not writing a checklist.

When you approach your case studies this way, they stop being barriers and start becoming powerful tools, ones that showcase not only your work but the way you think, solve problems, and add value to a team.

Because at the end of the day, employers aren’t hiring deliverables. They’re hiring problem solvers. 

Your case study should open doors, not close them. In a 60-minute 1:1 session, I’ll help you refine your portfolio so it clearly communicates your skills, reasoning, and impact, the way employers want to see it.


Helping UX Designers bridge gaps and grow

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