Career Strategy Podcast with Sarah Doody | UX, Product Design, UX Research

Sarah Doody from Career Strategy Lab
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Welcome to the Career Strategy Podcast, with Sarah Doody, a UX Researcher & Product Designer with 22 years of experience who is helping UX and Product people design their careers. You’ll learn how to advance your UX or Product career including how get hired in UX, stay hired, get promoted, and build a personal brand and visibility. You’ll also hear no BS tips to optimize your UX resume and portfolio, navigate your UX job search, and prepare for UX job interviews so you can stop being invisible and be seen as an in-demand UX professional. Get ready to UX your career, ironic, right?!

  1. 2d ago

    177: Getting ghosted in your UX job search? You're not invisible — you're unpositioned

    Are you getting ghosted in your UX job search despite knowing you're qualified? When you have 5, 10, 15 years of experience and you're applying to 20+ jobs a week without hearing back or you're not making it past the first round, it's natural to start thinking you're the problem. You're not. You're just unpositioned. In this episode, Sarah makes the case that ghosting is usually a positioning problem, rather than a skills issue. Positioning is how you communicate what you do, who you do it for, and why it matters. It's the thread that connects what you've done in the past to what you could do for a team if they hired you. When that thread is missing, recruiters and hiring managers move on because your materials aren't clearly paining the picture for them. Sarah walks through what it actually takes to fix your positioning, starting with the one foundational step most people skip: getting clear on who you are and what makes you different, before touching your resume, portfolio, or LinkedIn. Topics Discussed: ✅ Why getting ghosted in your UX job search isn't usually a qualification problem ✅ What causes recruiters to move on from your resume ✅ What "positioning" means in the context of a UX job search ✅ The step most people skip that ties everything together ✅ How applying to fewer jobs can get you more interviews ✅ Creating a Compass Statement and how it acts as a filter for every career asset you create ✅ How niching down your job search to a specific industry or type of company can transform your UX job search Links From This Episode: 🔗 How to stand out as a candidate by focusing on your benefits vs features 🔗 Developing your positioning through a career roadmap and compass statement 🔗 Free UX Case Study Template 💸 See how I help UX & Product people get 5-figure salary increases in my UX job search coaching program 👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube.

    23 min

  2. May 25

    176: Stuck at the Final Round of UX Interviews? Andrew Re-Did His UX Portfolio and Got 3 Offers (Including Blue Origin)

    What do you do when you have years of experience, you're making it through rounds of interviews, but you still aren't getting offers? For Andrew, the answer was scrapping his entire UX portfolio and starting over. Andrew had been applying to jobs for a year. He was making it to the final interview rounds at companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google, but he wasn't getting offers. On paper, everything looked great. He couldn't figure out what was missing. Eventually he did. After six years at GE, he'd gotten so deep in the work that in interviews, he'd talk at length about how interesting the products were and the intricacies of the industry. He was selling the products instead of himself. So he scrapped everything and rebuilt his portfolio around a single core message: what he does, what he's good at, and what he can bring to the companies he's applying to.  The clarity changed how he talked about himself in interviews. By the end of each conversation, hiring managers knew exactly who he was and how he'd be an asset. Three offers followed, including one from Blue Origin, where he accepted a role that brought him back to the intersection of hardware and software that drew him to UX in the first place. Topics Discussed: ✅ The difference between selling the product you worked on versus selling yourself to a potential employer ✅ The value of working on your resume, LinkedIn, and portfolio in parallel rather than sequentially ✅ Why making it to the final round but not getting the offer might signal a problem with your portfolio ✅ How perfectionism and long iteration cycles quietly destroy your confidence and what breaks the pattern ✅ What it looks like to rebuild your career materials around a single core message and how that clarity shows up in interviews too Links From This Episode: 🔗 Free UX Case Study Template 💸 See how I help UX & Product people get 5-figure salary increases in my UX job search coaching program 👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube.

    59 min

  3. May 18

    175: How to Deal with NDAs When Creating Your UX Portfolio

    NDAs stop a lot of UX professionals from including their best work in their portfolio, but they might not be the obstacle you think they are. Sarah has spent nearly a decade coaching UX professionals, and one of the questions she gets most often is how to handle NDA-protected work in a portfolio. In this episode, she walks through what NDAs typically do and don't restrict, how to write about protected work without violating your agreement, and why UX recruiters and hiring managers aren't looking for pixel-perfect deliverables (and what they are looking for instead.) Sarah also shares a concrete example of how to frame a confidential project in a way that's compelling, specific, and respectful of any agreements you've signed. If you've been leaving projects out of your portfolio because you weren't sure what you could share, this episode is worth a listen. Topics Discussed ✅ What NDAs actually restrict vs. what most people assume they restrict (they're not the same thing) ✅ A concrete example of how to write about a confidential project without naming the company, showing screens, or violating any agreements ✅ Why UX recruiters and hiring managers care far more about how you think than what the final product looked like ✅ Practical ways to include visuals from protected projects without revealing anything proprietary ✅ How NDA concerns often uncover the real problem: not knowing how to structure a UX case study ✅ How to go back to a former employer and ask the right questions to clarify what your NDA actually allows ✅ Why your UX portfolio doesn't have to be a website and how a presentation format can sidestep a lot of NDA concerns entirely Links From This Episode: 🔗 Free UX Case Study Template 🔗 UX Hiring Insights: Alexander Zeh of ManyChat on Diverse UX Teams and Standout Portfolios 🔗 UX Hiring Insights: Ben Peck on UX Generalists, Soft Skills, & Standout Portfolios 💸 See how I help UX & Product people get 5-figure salary increases in my UX job search coaching program 👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube.

    14 min

  4. May 11

    174: The Bar to Stand Out As A UX Candidate is Lower Than You Think

    Have you been applying to UX jobs you know you're qualified for and still not hearing back? Chances are, your experience isn't the problem, it's how you're presenting it. After nearly a decade of coaching UX and product professionals and reviewing thousands of resumes, portfolios, and LinkedIn profiles, Sarah has seen the same red flag mistakes show up again and again. The candidates making them are talented, experienced designers who simply were never taught how to market themselves. In this episode, Sarah breaks down one major red flag mistake for resumes, portfolios, and LinkedIn. Spoiler alert: fixing it doesn't require months of work. Sarah also shares the story of Jonathan, a UX director with 20 years of experience who was getting ghosted on 75% of his applications. He was qualified, but his materials weren't telling his story effectively. Once he addressed the right things, he landed an executive-level role at the University of Houston. Your materials don't have to be perfect... they need to be 10% better than everyone else making the same, avoidable, mistakes. Topics Discussed ✅ What hiring managers and applicant tracking systems are silently penalizing you for ✅ Why showing deliverables without context, process, or decision-making is leaving hiring managers cold ✅ What to put in your LinkedIn headline instead of just your job title and company name (and why) ✅ How to optimize your LinkedIn profile for the algorithm ✅ How to rewrite vague resume bullet points so they communicate scope and outcomes ✅ Why talented UX professionals with years of experience still struggle to get interviews ✅ How to break out of the perfection trap that's keeping you in research mode Links From This Episode: 🔗 Free UX Portfolio Case Study Template 🔗 Optimizing Your LinkedIn Headline 🔗 How to optimize your resume for the ATS so you can get more UX job interviews 🔗 EP 170: Jonathan's Journey From UX Layoff to UX Executive 💸 See how I help UX & Product people get 5-figure salary increases in my UX job search coaching program 👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube.

    18 min

  5. May 4

    173: UX Hiring Insights: Jeni Bible, UX Manager at Home Depot, on How She Got Hired, What She Looks for in Candidates, & Presenting UX Case Studies

    Do you ever wonder what happens on the other side of a UX job application, like who's reading your portfolio, what makes them keep going, and what makes them close the tab? Sarah sits down with Jeni Bible, a UX Manager at Home Depot who has a uniquely full-circle perspective. Jeni went through Career Strategy Lab, landed her role at Home Depot just four months later, and is now the hiring manager evaluating candidates for that same type of position. Jeni brings 27 years in the design industry, starting as a graphic designer, running her own agency for two decades, and making her way into UX through e-commerce. She now leads the online UX team at homedepot.com, focused on critical touchpoints like checkout, payments, and promotions. In this conversation, Jeni gets candid about what she looks for in a portfolio, why most candidates miss the mark in interviews, and what she told recruiters to help them filter the right people for her team. If you're in the thick of a UX job search or considering a career pivot, this interview with Jeni will be insightful. Topics discussed in this episode: ✅ How to get your application through a UX recruiters initial filter ✅ What portfolio format impresses UX recruiters more than a polished personal website ✅ The questions to ask a UX recruiter that the job description won't answer ✅ Why UX recruiters want to see failed tests and pivots, not just polished outcomes ✅ The panel interview move that almost always advances candidates to the next round ✅ How to include a canceled project in your UX portfolio without it hurting your chances ✅ Home Depot's UX career ladder explained and how contractor roles can open the door ✅ How Jeni uses peer feedback as a hiring manager Links From This Episode:Home Depot Careers Contractor Depot Timestamps: 00:00 Introducing Jeni Bible, UX Manager 01:13 Online vs. enterprise UX at Home Depot 02:32 Jeni's 27-year path into UX 05:35 Translating agency experience to in-house roles 07:47 What to ask recruiters on the first call 11:32 How CSL helped Jeni find direction 15:04 Tailoring a portfolio for a manager role 22:36 From 1,500 applicants to 10 24:07 Password-protected portfolios 29:08 What Jeni looks for in case studies 33:32 Candidates who don't ask about the team 36:27 Let the hiring manager choose your case study 39:22 Video case studies and prototype demos that stood out 41:48 The art of the pause during portfolio presentations 49:40 How to handle a canceled project in your portfolio 51:27 Reaching out on LinkedIn: what works, what doesn't 💸 See how I help UX & Product people get 5-figure salary increases in my UX job search coaching program 👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube.

    1h 2m

  6. Apr 27

    172: UX Hiring Insights: Alexander Zeh, Head of Product Design at ManyChat, on Building Diverse UX Teams, Scaling Design Teams, and What Makes a Portfolio Stand Out

    What does it take to build a UX portfolio that makes a hiring manager stop scrolling? Alexander Zeh, Head of Product Design at ManyChat, is here to share how he approaches hiring and what many candidates get wrong. In this episode of the Career Strategy Podcast, Sarah Doody sits down with Alexander Zeh, a design leader with over 20 years of experience who has scaled UX teams from 5 to 43 people. Alexander is refreshingly direct about what he's looking for and what sends candidates straight to the 'no' pile. He breaks down how he structures his hiring process to reduce bias, why a failed project can be a stronger case study than a polished one, how to handle NDA-protected work, and why the "hero designer" narrative is working against you. Whether you're actively applying to UX roles or just trying to understand what hiring managers are really thinking, this conversation will change how you approach your next portfolio presentation. Topics discussed in this episode: ✅ Why Alexander treats team diversity as a design decision ✅ The grading criteria that lets hiring managers make a confident call ✅ Why clear writing and articulation matter more than Figma fluency ✅ How constraints and failed projects can make a stronger case study than a polished outcome ✅ How claiming to do it all might be a red flag to hiring managers ✅ Whether UX job seekers in different countries need different portfolios  ✅ How to handle NDA-protected work ✅ Why showing your thinking at every fork in the road matters more than the final product Links From This Episode:ManyChat Careers Page Metaview CSL Podcast Episode Archive Timestamps: 00:57 Intro: Alexander and ManyChat 03:10 Alexander's career journey 07:26 From consulting to in-house leadership 12:36 Building diverse teams intentionally 15:26 Why grading criteria beats "I'll know it when I see it" 16:22 Blind submissions to avoid groupthink 18:16 What hiring managers actually look for 22:19 What standout candidates do differently 28:09 Does location affect your UX job search? 35:25 Showing impact without a happy ending 44:34 Resilience, vision, and holding the tension 47:55 Handling NDA work in your portfolio 💸 See how I help UX & Product people get 5-figure salary increases in my UX job search coaching program 👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube.

    55 min

  7. Apr 20

    171: The 6-Word Post-It Note To Speed Up & Fix Your UX Job Search

    Are you spending hours on your UX job search but not actually making progress? The problem usually isn't effort. It's focus. Most job seekers stay busy tweaking portfolios, scrolling job boards, and hanging out in Slack groups, but at the end of the day, they can't point to anything that moved them closer to getting hired. In this episode of the Career Strategy Podcast, Sarah Doody shares a simple Post-It note hack that transformed how she runs her business, and how you can use the same concept to cut through the noise and focus on what actually matters in your job search. Topics discussed in this episode: ✅ The 6-word question a business coach told Sarah to write on a Post-It note ✅ Why "being busy" in your job search is not the same as making progress ✅ How to identify what your job search actually needs right now ✅ Why tweaking your portfolio for the fifth time probably isn't the answer ✅ How to create your own Post-It note filter for your UX job search ✅ The difference between false productivity and real momentum Timestamps: 00:00 The best productivity tool might be a Post-It note 00:24 The 6-word question that changed how Sarah runs her business 02:24 Why "is this a revenue generating activity" was a game changer 04:49 Your job search is like a business 05:45 How to write your own Post-It note question 06:30 The trap of tweaking your portfolio all Saturday 07:06 False sense of productivity and why it's the enemy of getting hired 08:45 You don't need more time, you need the right focus 09:33 Send Sarah your Post-It note on LinkedIn 💸 See how I help UX & Product people get 5-figure salary increases in my UX job search coaching program 👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube.

    11 min

  8. Apr 13

    170 - Finding Your UX Niche: Jonathan's Journey From UX Layoff to UX Executive in Higher Education

    After being laid off, Jonathan spent months applying to everything and getting almost nowhere. Even with 20 years of UX experience, 75% of his applications ended in silence or rejection. In this episode of Career Strategy Lab, Sarah Doody catches up with Jonathan now that he's landed an Executive Director of Web Experience role at the University of Houston Downtown He shares what changed in his job search when he stopped applying to everything and started being intentional about where, how, and to whom he was presenting himself. Topics discussed in this episode: ✅ Why applying to everything actually slows your job search down ✅ How getting more specific and intentional led to significantly more callbacks ✅ The power of peer accountability and working sessions in a community ✅ How to think about your portfolio presentation vs. your website ✅ Why two versions of your resume matter in today's ATS-driven hiring landscape ✅ The "ugly first draft" mindset and why it helps you move faster Timestamps: 01:03 Jonathan's new role: Executive Director of Web Experience 02:32 Why DIY-ing his job search wasn't working 03:16 The tipping point that led him to join Career Strategy Lab 05:30 How niching down changed everything 07:00 From 50 applications a week to 5 12:02 The "ugly first draft" mindset 13:40 Treating your job search like an experiment 14:29 How to stay objective about your own work 15:08 Why confidence is a byproduct of action, not a prerequisite for starting 15:49 Imposter syndrome 17:16 Keep a log of wins to fight negative self-talk when you're stuck 18:36 Walking into interviews with a 30-60-90 day plan 21:32 Portfolio website vs. PDF deck 23:16 Two versions of your resume: ATS vs. human-readable 💸 See how I help UX & Product people get 5-figure salary increases in my UX job search coaching program 👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube.

    28 min
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Welcome to the Career Strategy Podcast, with Sarah Doody, a UX Researcher & Product Designer with 22 years of experience who is helping UX and Product people design their careers. You’ll learn how to advance your UX or Product career including how get hired in UX, stay hired, get promoted, and build a personal brand and visibility. You’ll also hear no BS tips to optimize your UX resume and portfolio, navigate your UX job search, and prepare for UX job interviews so you can stop being invisible and be seen as an in-demand UX professional. Get ready to UX your career, ironic, right?!

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