Frequently Asked Questions About Career Strategy Lab
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- General FAQ about Career Strategy Lab
No. Career Strategy Lab will not teach you how to do UX. Instead, we focus on helping you get hired.
We pick up where UX boot camps and education programs often leave off or leave you hanging.
As one of our clients in Career Strategy Lab recently said:
“CSL is a detailed step-by-step “how-to” for everything you need to know and do as part of the job search. Filling in the holes from accelerated courses/boot camps. Bootcamps teach you the technical skills to do the job, CSL teaches you how to get the job.”
– Jessica, a General Assembly graduate
The Career Strategy Lab is not a membership or subscription that you can cancel at any time. When you enroll, you either pay the one-time payment or you can spread the payment out over 6 months.
If you get hired after 2 months, amazing! We strongly recommend that you take advantage of everything that’s inside Career Strategy Lab.
For example, you could retroactively go back and see where you could possibly improve your resume, LinkedIn, portfolio, etc for the future. As well, if you get hired that fast, you might want to revisit your Career Roadmap to help plan or re-adjust your career goals.
No! Career Strategy Lab is for people at all stages of their UX careers.
We have people in the program who have 10+ years of experience in UX as well as people seeking their first UX role.
Whether you want to define the next chapter of your career or you want to get your first role, we can help.
The process to create a stellar resume, a portfolio that stands out, find and conduct your job search, and prepare for interviews is the same no matter what stage you’re at.
As of January 2022, 54% of the people who’ve joined Career Strategy Lab already did or were currently enrolled in a UX bootcamp.
There are people in CSL who also attended boot camps and education programs including:
- Career Foundry
- General Assembly
- Nielsen Norman Group
- Springboard
- Bloc
- Thinkful
- DesignLab
- Ironhack
- Pratt
- RISD
- University of Washington
- Parsons
- And more!
As one person who attended Thinkful said:
“CSL has been amazing. It’s worth every bit of it. It’s better than the boot camp I’m in. It’s filling in all the gaps that many UX boot camps have, especially when it comes to finding a job with their vague guarantees for help after you get your certificate, right down to writing your case studies.”
No, we do not offer Income Share Agreements.
If you’re looking for a program with an Income Share Agreement program, you should read the fine print. We’ve heard some not-so-great things about some “strings” attached to those agreements. Just saying 🙂
This program is for anyone working in UX or Product Development including:
- UX Designers
- UX Researchers
- UX Writers
- Product Strategists
- Content Strategists
- Product Managers
- Web Designers
- And any other job title related to UX and Product Developement.
The process you need to follow to land your next job is the same no matter what you do within UX and Product Development.
The difference in your resume, portfolio, etc will be in the types of roles you apply to and the skills you highlight in your resume, portfolio, job interviews, etc.
However, the process to create your resume, portfolio, etc is the same regardless of what you do 🙂
Yes! If you want to do UX consulting or freelance work, this program will help you frame and package your experience and services so you stand out.
Whether a company is hiring you as a full-time employee, contractor, or service provider, you will increase the chances of getting hired if you are able to clearly articulate what you do and the value you can bring to that company.
- Results & Outcomes
Since 2017 we’ve helped UX professionals around the world land their dream jobs in countries including:
- Canada
- United States of America
- Spain
- Ireland
- England
- Belgium
- Germany
- Singapore
- Australia
- Taiwan
- Mexico
No! We’ve had people get hired less than 60 days after joining Career Strategy Lab. Our goal is that you are applying after 30 days.
How long it will take you to be applying and interviewing depends on two key things. First, what you come into CSL with. If you don’t have a resume or a portfolio in any form, then it may take you a little longer. And second, how fast you progress through CSL depends on how much time you can put into it.
We recommend that you have at least 5 hours a week to commit to CSL to get the most out of the program.
Yes, our clients have secured 100% remote roles as well as hybrid roles.
We anticipate remote roles will continue to be available in the future as the workforce demands more flexibility.
If remote is an important factor in your next role, don’t settle! There are many companies that offer 100% remote opportunities.
To be honest, we cannot calculate a success rate. This is because not everyone who joins Career Strategy Lab aims to get hired within 6-months. Some people join proactively so they can be ready in the future, when unexpected opportunities come their way or when they are ready to go after a new role.
Ultimately, getting hired requires that you do the work it takes to get hired. We provide you with all the tools and support you need, but at the end of the day, you need to show up and take personal responsibility.
People who are most successful with Career Strategy Lab dedicate at least 5 hours a week, submit at least 2 items a month for critique, and engage in the private community.
Yes, we’ve had people secure paid internships.
We are currently building relationships with companies who offer paid internships so that we can help people earlier in their careers find opportunities to get their foot in the door without working for free … don’t work for free 🙂
No, we do not guarantee that you will get hired. This is simply out of our control and thus, not something we can promise!
We promise, we’ll give you all the tools to get hired, but ultimately, you have to take personal responsibility and do the work.
We do not act as a recruiting service and do not have influence over the hiring decisions of hiring managers or companies.
Finally, if you’re looking for a program with a job guarantee, you should read the fine print of that program. We’ve heard some not so great things about some “strings” attached to those promises. Just saying 🙂
- Program Format
Our program is a hybrid of on-demand training and both synchronous and asynchronous feedback, support, and coaching.
When you join the program you will receive access to an online portal where you can log in and access all the training materials, tutorials, templates, bonuses, and community. The materials are all on-demand and are not dripped out over time so you can do it on your own schedule and not have to worry about showing up to live lectures.
You will have the opportunity to join our live weekly group coaching calls as well as our weekly co-working sessions.
You will be able to submit work for critique every week. Critiques are pre-recorded and done by our team of expert coaches.
We also have a private community that is very active where you can ask questions, network, and get feedback.
We recommend you plan to spend 5 hours a week. Of course, this is entirely dependent on what you come into Career Strategy Lab with so please keep that in mind.
Everyone has different life scenarios and paces at which they work, so we can’t give you an exact week-by-week breakdown of hours!
Given that our training and lessons are all on-demand you don’t have to stress out about showing up to live lectures and instead, can work the program into your schedule.
Yes, absolutely! We have numerous ways you can get feedback and support.
- Critiques: Each week, you can submit items for critique and we’ll send you back a video recording of us reviewing your resume, portfolio, LinkedIn, or whatever you submit for critique.
- Community: In our private community, not on Facebook, you can ask questions and get feedback from our coaches, other people in CSL, and our alumni!
- Q&A Sessions: Each week, we hold a group Q&A call where we answer questions that have been submitted. This is a great way to get the feedback of the CSL team as well as your peers who are going through CSL.
Farrah
Increased her salary by 100%
“I accepted a position as a Senior UX Designer for a Fortune 500 financial company in Texas.
My salary is a 100% increase. So basically I make double what I was making at my last job.”
KATIE
Hired with a 72% pay jump
“I accepted a position as a Senior UX Designer for a Fortune 500 financial company in Texas.
My salary is a 100% increase. So basically I make double what I was making at my last job.”