What web designers actually need to show, not tell

A recent piece aimed at web designers made a fairly obvious but often ignored point: if you want to be hired to build websites, you should have websites that prove you can. Not a CV that claims skills — actual working examples, built to solve real problems like accessibility, navigation, or branding, not just to look nice in a screenshot.

It's advice specific to one trade, but the logic behind it applies far beyond web design. Anyone in a skills-based field is being quietly asked the same question: can you show it, or are you just telling me?

Why 'show, don't tell' matters more than ever

Employers hiring for practical skills are short on time and long on applicants. A line on a CV saying "strong design skills" or "excellent problem-solving" tells them nothing they can verify quickly. A live example, a case study, a before-and-after, a small project you built specifically to demonstrate range — that's evidence, and evidence gets looked at properly.

This isn't only true for designers and developers. It applies to anyone who can point to something tangible: a spreadsheet model, a process you streamlined, a campaign you ran, a document you wrote. If you can link to it, attach it, or describe it precisely enough that it sounds real, do that instead of relying on adjectives.

What to actually do about it

• If your work produces anything visible or shareable, build a small portfolio — even one or two strong examples beat a vague list of 'skills'.
• Match your portfolio and CV to what the employer is actually checking for, not everything you're capable of. Read the job ad closely and mirror its priorities.
• Make it fast to review. Recruiters and hiring managers skim; give them the headline achievement first, detail second.
• Include a simple way to get in touch and be clear about your process — this matters whether you're freelance or applying for a permanent role.

The underlying message is the same one that comes up again and again in hiring: unverified claims get skipped, specific evidence gets read. Whether that evidence is a live website, a metric, or a well-chosen example on your CV, the job is to make it easy for someone to believe you.

FixMyCV.ai won't build you a portfolio, but it will tailor your CV to the specific role you're applying for — pulling out the evidence you already have and matching it to what the employer's actually asking for, without inventing anything you haven't done.

Source: OnRec. FixMyCV summarises and comments; we never reproduce articles.