Helping 50+ experienced designers land roles in 4-12 weeks through trust, not applications
Founder & UX Career Coach (Solo founder)
Designed and launched an 8-week group coaching program, 8 AI-powered coaching tools, community platform, and content system.
Senior to principal level designers (5-20+ years experience) navigating career transitions.
Sep 2024 – Present
50+ designers coached. 39,000+ LinkedIn followers. LinkedIn Top Voice since 2024.
The system rewards visibility, not value. Polished resumes. Strong portfolios. 50-100 applications. Still nothing.
So I designed a different system. The Backdoor replaces cold applications with warm conversations, custom proof assets, and trust-based hiring.
Result: 50+ designers coached. Clients landing roles in 4 to 12 weeks. 20-30% outreach response rates versus 1% from job boards. 8 AI-powered coaching tools built to support every stage of the process.
Experienced designers were doing everything right and getting nowhere
They had:
- Polished resumes (some rewritten by professional resume writers)
- Strong portfolios
- Real skills and real experience
What they were experiencing:
- Ghosted after applications
- No interviews despite months of trying
- Questioning their worth after every silence
- Some had worked with other career coaches. Still no offers.
People hire people, not resumes. The hiring game is played through trust, not applications.
About 70% of roles are never posted online.
By the time a job appears on LinkedIn, the hiring decision is already half made. The front door is where hundreds of people queue up and compete on keywords. The back door is where one person walks in because someone already trusts them.
I tested this insight with clients. The ones who trusted the process and did the work got results:
- Sarah got invited to a hidden role without applying
- Charlene got fast-tracked to final rounds as a career changer
- Jeff landed a $200K role at Walmart
I tested the system on myself first, then refined it with 50+ clients
From Barrows to DBS to Income to ContactOut, the pattern was the same: build trust first, get invited in.
The question was whether I could make this repeatable for others. I designed a three-pillar system:
- Core Clarity: who you are, what makes you valuable, which roles are worth pursuing
- Curious Conversations: how to reach the right people through genuine curiosity, not templates
- Compelling Choice: how to showcase proof that makes the hiring manager's decision easy
Building a coaching system powered by frameworks and AI tools
Core Clarity: Rebuilding positioning from values outward
Asset Mindset workshop to counter limiting beliefs.
Power Positioning to craft a story that attracts the right companies.
This is the foundation. Without clarity, no amount of outreach works.
Curious Conversations: Dream 100 network building
7/7/7 Jackpot Formula for finding dream companies through passions, personal problems, and professional pains.
Outreach Playbook for crafting messages that get 20-30% response rates.
Compelling Choice: Backstage passes and 90-day plans
90-day plans that demonstrate how you would help them win from day one.
Interview preparation using the TRUST framework.
Negotiation coaching to add $10-50K to total compensation.
8 AI coaching tools for every stage of the process
- Resume Coach
- Portfolio Coach
- LinkedIn Coach
- Outreach Coach
- Cover Letter Coach
- Interview Coach
- Negotiation Coach
- Mindset Coach
Before and after working together.
Worked with the #1 career coach in the US. Resume polished. LinkedIn optimized. Still no offers after months.
Landed dream job at an AI startup in San Francisco in 3 weeks. Negotiated $10K above the top salary range.
"Joseph flipped the script. He asked thought-provoking questions that went deeper than surface coaching. He helped me see that my true strengths are in bringing clarity to chaos."
18 years in government UX. Resume not impactful. Portfolio long and not engaging. No clue what to do differently.
Landed Lead UX Product Designer role at Yes Energy. More confident career story. Portfolio she is proud of.
"I learned the importance of targeted networking and talking with people. Joseph helped me sharpen how I show up online."
Laid off unexpectedly. Not getting any interviews. Resume and portfolio needed updating.
Recruiter reached out, interview secured, hired within one month.
"Joseph has a really keen eye for shaping a career trajectory using story and narrative-driven optimizations."
Burned out. Stayed in the same role too long. Fell out of love with design. Moved to a new country and needed a role for permanent residency.
Accepted an offer in Calgary that checked every box. Leadership role. Providing for family. Excited about design again.
"Joseph helped me fall back in love with design. He knew when to push, when to challenge, and when to simply remind me to keep going."
Career changer from marketing. 7+ years experience but could not land a single UX interview. Felt stuck.
Hiring managers started giving her time. 30-minute coffee chat stretched to over an hour. Fast-tracked to final-round interview for a role not yet posted.
"For the first time, doors opened because of who I am, not just what is on my resume."
Felt stuck. Current role did not align with goals. Lacked clarity about what she wanted next or how to get there.
Uncovered true strengths. Clear direction and plan forward. Learned to network effectively and share learning in public.
"Joseph genuinely cares about your success. I am walking away with clarity, confidence, and a clear plan forward."
Needed to update portfolio, resume, and LinkedIn. Relied on sending resumes instead of creating opportunities.
More confident. Learned to reach out effectively and talk to people at dream companies directly.
"The value was immense. I can apply so much of my learnings at different stages of my career."
50+ designers coached. Roles landed in 4 to 12 weeks.
Client outcomes: Designers landing roles through trust, not applications
- Veronica: dream role in 3 weeks, $10K above range (San Francisco)
- Miroslava: 18 years government to Lead Designer in private sector
- Lance: no interviews to hired in 30 days
- Shaun: dream job in Canada after 8 weeks of coaching
- Charlene: ghosted career changer to final-round interviews
- 50+ experienced designers coached through The Backdoor
- 20-30% outreach response rates (vs 1% from job boards)
The system worked because it addressed the real bottleneck: trust, not tactics.
Platform and tools built
- 8 AI-powered coaching tools built on the 6-lens Hiring Signal framework
- Full coaching platform: quiz, email sequences, community portal, offer system
- 39,000+ LinkedIn followers, LinkedIn Top Voice since 2024
- Masterclass and webinar content reaching hundreds of designers
Everything I learned about product design, change management, and team building applies directly to helping individuals transform their careers.
What I took away
The strongest signal is not what you have done but who can vouch for you. Every system I built reinforces this. The backstage pass, the dream 100, the curious conversations. All designed to build trust before the interview.
Most designers skip straight to tactics: fix the resume, update the portfolio, apply to more roles. But if you do not know what you want, no amount of outreach or portfolio polish will get you there. Core Clarity is always week one.
It is the questions that make someone see their own value for the first time. The frameworks give them structure to act on it. But the real shift happens when they stop seeing themselves as job seekers and start seeing themselves as people with something to offer.
"Working with Joseph was absolutely life-changing. In just three weeks, I landed my dream job, negotiated $10K above their top salary range, and walked away with clarity and confidence about who I am and what I bring."
"I now have a more impactful resume and a portfolio I am proud of. Joseph helped me sharpen how I show up online. My LinkedIn presence and overall career story feel a lot more polished and confident."
"Within a month of working with Joseph, a recruiter reached out, got me an interview, and I got hired. Joseph has a really keen eye for shaping a career trajectory using story and narrative."
"Joseph helped me fall back in love with design and land the role I was searching for. He knew when to push, when to challenge, and when to simply remind me to keep going."
"Joseph showed me how to position my transferable skills and build trust with the right people. For the first time, doors opened because of who I am, not just what is on my resume."
"Joseph helped me uncover my true strengths, gain confidence, and develop a clear sense of direction. He adapted to my unique situation juggling a full-time job and parenting."
"My major takeaway was learning how to create opportunities and stand out from the crowd. The value was immense."
"Joseph helped me cut through the noise and understand the work that aligns with my values. I now have a clear direction and am interviewing with companies whose mission genuinely excites me."
"I am now more confident in navigating the job market. Joseph's insight as a hiring manager has equipped me with the tools to improve my positioning and connect strategically."
"Joseph completely changed the way I approach the job hunt. His perspective on envisioning the role you really want, rather than applying en masse, put power back into my hands. It made me less anxious and more intentional about the entire process."
Let's build something together.
Whether you're scaling a startup, transforming an enterprise, or building a design team, I'd love to hear about it.