There is a question every hiring manager asks the moment they open a designer's CV. It is not "Can they design?" It is not "Do they know Figma?" It is much simpler than that.Is this person relevant to my problem — and are they worth my time to meet?In Cambodia's growing design industry, that question gets answered in under ten seconds. Hiring managers are busy. They are often reviewing fifty or a hundred applications for a single role. They are not reading carefully — they are scanning. And your CV either earns the next ten seconds, or it doesn't.Most designers lose those first ten seconds not because their work is weak, but because their CV is doing the wrong job.<h2 id="37c86ca5-ca4e-4f98-9286-d0efa02f7677" data-toc-id="37c86ca5-ca4e-4f98-9286-d0efa02f7677" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">The mistake almost every level makes</h2>Junior designers list tools. Mid-level designers list responsibilities. Senior designers write summaries full of words like "visionary" and "passionate" that say everything and mean nothing.The underlying problem is the same at every level: describing what you did instead of what changed because of what you did.There is a big difference between "Designed the onboarding screens" and "Redesigned the onboarding flow after research revealed 43% of new users were abandoning before completing registration — reducing drop-off by 31% in the first month post-launch."The first tells a hiring manager you were present. The second tells them you were useful.<h2 id="cefd4646-28bc-4c1c-b497-444358cc091a" data-toc-id="cefd4646-28bc-4c1c-b497-444358cc091a" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">What the Cambodian market specifically needs</h2>Designing in Cambodia is a different kind of career. You have likely worn multiple hats. You have designed for users with low digital literacy, navigated Khmer typography, and solved trust problems in a cash economy — on hardware that most Western design teams have never even tested on.That experience is genuinely valuable. The challenge is knowing how to say so.Too many local designers frame their regional experience as a limitation. It is not. Designing for KHQR payment flows, Telegram Mini Apps, and mobile-first users in the provinces is a real specialisation. It belongs on your CV, described with the same confidence and specificity you would use for any other professional standard you work to.If your portfolio loads slowly on a 4G connection, many Cambodian hiring managers will simply move on. If your file is named CV_final_v3.pdf, you have already made a small but visible mistake. These things matter — not because perfection is the goal, but because attention to detail is a core design skill, and your CV is the first place you demonstrate it.<h2 id="6715a213-31f4-4c47-b02e-f7b138639c68" data-toc-id="6715a213-31f4-4c47-b02e-f7b138639c68" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">The one thing to change this week</h2>Go through your CV and find every bullet point that describes an activity. Ask yourself one question for each one: What changed because of this work?If you cannot answer that question, the bullet point is not finished yet.Your CV is a design problem. It has a user. It has a goal. It has constraints. Apply the same thinking to it that you apply to your best work — and then let it do its job.This post is adapted from “Getting your next job” a practical course built specifically for Cambodian designers at junior, mid, and senior level.

Most designers lose job opportunities not because their work is weak, but because their CV describes what they did instead of what changed. Here's what to fix — specifically for the Cambodian design market.

Your CV has one job and most designers are getting it wrong

What the Cambodian market specifically needs

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Your CV has one job and most designers are getting it wrong

Your CV has one job and most designers are getting it wrong

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