<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At mid-level and beyond, it is increasingly common to have worked on products you cannot publicly show. Fintech platforms. Health applications. Government systems. Enterprise tools built for clients who signed an NDA before the project started.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most designers treat this as a dead end on their CV. They either leave the work off entirely — losing months or years of relevant experience — or write a single vague line that tells a hiring manager almost nothing.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a third option that almost no one uses. And it works.<h2 id="9f367025-e045-4e5d-bcea-6395913270e5" data-toc-id="9f367025-e045-4e5d-bcea-6395913270e5" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What your nda actually restricts</h2><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is where most designers get it wrong. They assume that because a project is under NDA, it cannot appear on their CV at all. In most cases, this is not true.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Non-disclosure agreements typically protect the client's name, the specific product visuals, and proprietary business information. They do not prevent you from describing the nature of the work, the scale of the product, the methods you used, or the outcomes you delivered.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is what that looks like in practice:<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Led UX research and interaction design for a confidential fintech platform serving over 50,000 active users in Cambodia. Conducted ten stakeholder interviews and four rounds of usability testing across two user segments. Delivered a redesigned onboarding flow that reduced time-to-first-transaction by an average of three minutes."<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No client name. No screens. But the experience is credible, specific, and shows exactly what this designer can do.<h2 id="fa90c02f-57ea-4871-ae18-73c4a6bfcc1f" data-toc-id="fa90c02f-57ea-4871-ae18-73c4a6bfcc1f" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The mistake that makes nda work invisible anyway</h2><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even when designers do include NDA work, they often write it so vaguely that it does the opposite of what it should.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Worked on a confidential project for a large client."<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This tells a hiring manager nothing — and raises more questions than it answers. The goal is to be specific about everything the NDA allows, while being silent only about what it restricts.<h2 id="9f3047e0-2474-4a37-b5a0-75edac443a3c" data-toc-id="9f3047e0-2474-4a37-b5a0-75edac443a3c" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cambodian context</h2><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a small market like Cambodia, NDAs carry extra weight. The design community is tight-knit, and clients are often recognisable from indirect description even without naming them.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This means the approach needs to be calibrated carefully — specific enough to be credible, conservative enough to genuinely protect the client. Getting that balance right matters both professionally and legally.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.swchon.com/en/course-detail/nextjob/41778/"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting Your Next Job</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> course covers the full approach to NDA work — on your CV, in your portfolio, and in the interview room — with specific guidance for the Cambodian market.

Most designers think NDA work is a dead end on their CV. It isn't. You can describe the experience, the methods, and the outcome — without naming the client or showing the screens.

How to Talk About NDA Work on Your CV Without Betraying Your Client

How to include confidential client work on your CV — the template that works, what to avoid, and special considerations for the tight-knit Cambodian design market.

NDA Work on Your Designer CV: What You Can and Can't Say

How to talk about NDA work on your CV without betraying your client

The mistake that makes nda work invisible anyway

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How to talk about NDA work on your CV without betraying your client

How to talk about NDA work on your CV without betraying your client

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