3 things your UX job search has in common with soap operas

Sarah Doody [00:00:00]: Be very mindful of timing here. Timing matters. Your timing influences whether or not you are seen. So don’t just post or reply when it’s convenient for you. Think of when your audience is most likely to pay attention. Hey there. I’m Sarah Doody, host of the career strategy podcast. Many professionals are seeking more impact, flexibility, growth, and let’s face it, getting paid what they’re worth.

Sarah Doody [00:00:30]: But how do you unlock this in your career? It starts with strategy. I’m taking you behind the scenes of what’s working for my career coaching clients. You’ll hear strategies and actionable, yet sometimes against the grain, advice for how you can be the CEO of your career and stop dreading Mondays. Ready to level up your career? Let’s get after it. What do soap operas and your UX job search have in common? Now I know you’re thinking, this seems like a stretch, but the truth is your job search might be stalling not because you’re not talented enough, but because you’re missing some of the same strategy that made soap operas one of the most effective marketing plays in history. So let’s dive in. First, we have to rewind to about the nineteen thirties. And Procter and Gamble, we’ve all heard of them.

Sarah Doody [00:01:31]: They make Tide and Crest and Febreze and all those things. Procter and Gamble had a problem. Way back in the nineteen thirties, they wanted to sell more soap, and they realized something very interesting. Right? They realized they didn’t need more advertisements. They needed attention. And if you have been to some of my workshops, you know I talk about attention quite a bit, especially in my AIDA framework. That’s That’s for another day, though. But what did they do to help get more attention? They created the soap opera.

Sarah Doody [00:02:13]: Now what does this have to do with getting hired in user experience? Turns out a lot. So soap operas were a creation of Procter and Gamble, and they were originally radio shows sponsored by P and G and designed specifically for housewives back in the thirties. They were short, dramatic episodes filled with emotion, drama, cliffhangers, fights, compelling characters, all those things, and they aired these soap operas on the radio every night. Right? Then their audience was at home and could listen. And instead of waiting for customers to come to them, Procter and Gamble went to where their audience was, right, and gave them something they actually wanted. And the result of these soap operas was, guess what, attention and loyalty and trust and familiarity and massive sales of goods that Procter and Gamble sold. Now let’s bring this back to you and your UX job search because when you look at what made Procter and Gamble’s soap opera strategy work, the same principles apply if you wanna build visibility and attention and momentum as a UX candidate. So let’s look at four lessons that you can borrow directly from the soap opera playbook.

Sarah Doody [00:03:49]: Alright. Number one is to go where your audience is. Right? Procter and Gamble didn’t wait for people to stumble upon their products. They went to where their audience was. They went to radio because women were listening to radio at home, then came the TV versions of soap operas, etcetera. And you, your audience where’s your audience? Well, who is your audience is a better question. Right? If you’re in a job search, your audience is the recruiters, the hiring managers, and people who work at the companies where you want to work. So where do they hang out? They hang out likely on LinkedIn.

Sarah Doody [00:04:31]: Love it or hate it, they hang out on LinkedIn. Now, yes, there could be niche communities. They’re a part of etcetera, but a large, large majority of them are on LinkedIn. So many candidates, though, spend a ton of time on their portfolio and their resume and other stuff, and they totally neglect LinkedIn. They neglect the marketing channel that has a gigantic reach and a direct connection to their potential customers slash audience. Right? So we need to think about how can you be more visible on LinkedIn. Right? Because it’s not enough just to have a nice resume or a nice website or a nice cover letter or a nice portfolio. You have to be visible where the people are.

Sarah Doody [00:05:21]: You have to show up where your audience is already spending time. And we have other episodes about what you can post on LinkedIn during a job search, so we will link to that in the episode show notes. Just check that out and you can click right over and listen to those other episodes. Alright. So number one, you have to go where your audience is. Just like P and G went to radio so the housewives could listen, you need to go to where your audience is. Love it or hate it, that is LinkedIn. Alright.

Sarah Doody [00:05:53]: Point number two is design for them, not you. So let’s think about the soap operas. Right? Soap operas were made for their audience. Soap operas were designed around the daily rhythm and values and emotions of the intended audience. Also, the intended purchaser. Right? Soap operas were trying to sell soap. And who buys the soap? The women. So they needed to put something in front of the women that would meet them where they’re at so they could sell more soap soap operas.

Sarah Doody [00:06:31]: So here’s the thing that most job seekers get wrong. They write their resume for themselves. They design their portfolio or their resume for themselves. They try and repurpose a case study that they used at their last job, like, for a meeting and repurpose it for their portfolio. Not gonna work because that’s not designing for them, meaning the recruiter, the hiring manager, etcetera. Portfolios are not your time to try and create the most creative, expressive design in the world. Your portfolio is not meant to win a design award. Your portfolio is one job to show the receipts.

Sarah Doody [00:07:18]: And when you think of your busy recruiter, hiring manager, user, you have to eliminate all distractions, all noise, etcetera, get to the point in a very quick, clear, fast way so they can see that you have the exact skills and experience they are looking for. If your materials don’t clearly show your value, if they don’t answer questions that are going through the head of these people who are hiring, then you’re probably not going to stand out. So you need to be very mindful of who your user slash customer is in your job search and design for them just like Procter and Gamble was very clear on their audience, the behaviors, the traits, etcetera of that audience and developed the soap opera. The user, again, is those recruiters, hiring managers, people who work at that company who might eventually be in an interview with you too. Alright. Now number three is the idea that repetition builds trust. So think about the soap operas. They don’t just have one episode a month.

Sarah Doody [00:08:38]: Soap operas air every single day. Right? That is what built familiarity. That is what kept people coming back. That’s what created this frequent visibility that got the women to watch the soap operas. And because they wanted to know what would happen in that episode of the soap opera, they watched the ads because there was no fast forward through the ads back then in the thirties. Right? So this is what most UX candidates don’t do. Most candidates don’t do the repetition part. They post on LinkedIn once, and then maybe it’s six weeks until they post something.

Sarah Doody [00:09:24]: They leave a couple of comments and don’t ever comment on anything for another three weeks. Right? That’s not showing up. That’s not repetitive. One post every three weeks doesn’t build momentum. It doesn’t build visibility. It doesn’t build recognition, etcetera. So if you want to increase your visibility with your potential, quote, customers, you need to build repetitive habits to show up on LinkedIn to increase your visibility. The magic is really showing up consistently even when it feels like no one is watching, even when you don’t want to.

Sarah Doody [00:10:04]: You may not feel like you want to. But if you ask yourself, wait a sec. Why am I doing this? It’s because posting that repetitive posting breeds familiarity, breeds visibility, breeds relationships. Relationships lead to trust. Then when you cold DM someone, you’re not really cold. You’re more like warm DMing or warm emailing them because they actually recognize you. And we have a whole episode about warm voice versus cold contacts, so we’ll link to that in the show notes also. So repetition builds trust in the same way that those soap operas aired every single day.

Sarah Doody [00:10:46]: You need to increase your visibility by getting into a repetitive habit of showing up where your people are, especially if you’re actively applying to jobs. Alright. Last point. Number four, timing matters. Right? We need to be strategic about when literally when we show up. The soap operas did not air at 2AM or 7AM or 12PM. They aired when the potential audience, the women, were most likely to have the time and energy to watch. Right? They were intentionally scheduled for midday, often in the afternoons, maybe when children were at school or were napping, not at 05:30PM when someone is busy getting dinner and trying to entertain children.

Sarah Doody [00:11:41]: So they didn’t just show up consistently. They showed up at the right time that would increase the chances that they would be most visible to their desired audience. The same goes for your job search. So you’re going to now get into a more repetitive habit of engaging on LinkedIn. But when are you gonna engage on LinkedIn? Ideally, you’re not doing it at midnight and 1AM when a lot of people are not on LinkedIn. You’re going to do it at times when other people are on LinkedIn just like the soap operas. Right? So we need to be strategic now. It doesn’t mean you literally have to be on LinkedIn at 2PM because we can schedule a LinkedIn post now.

Sarah Doody [00:12:31]: Right? So be mindful of when you are showing up on your time. Are you DMing people at 9AM on a Sunday? Well, guess what? Most people aren’t checking their email or LinkedIn DMs at 9AM on a Sunday. Be very mindful of timing here. Timing matters. Your timing influences whether or not you are seen. So don’t just post or apply when it’s convenient for you. Think of when your audience is most likely to pay attention. Alright.

Sarah Doody [00:13:05]: That is our history lesson on soap operas and what you can learn and take and apply to your job search. Procter and Gamble didn’t sell soap. They sold stories. They showed up when and where their audience would most be attentive. They showed up consistently. They went where their audience was. Right? And it all had a purpose. The the history of the soap operas, it’s so mind blowing.

Sarah Doody [00:13:34]: I remember when I first heard about this, and I just remember thinking that is so brilliant. Now let’s apply that brilliance to your job search. Your job search is not a one off application. It’s not a pretty portfolio that’s just full of personality and overly designed. All of this needs to be intentionally rooted in your user, your customer, just like the soap operas were intentionally designed meticulously for getting the attention of those housewives so Procter and Gamble could sell more soap. So your job now is to show up where your audience is, when they’re going to pay attention, and with a message that is built for them. And if you do that, just like Procter and Gamble, you’ll stop being invisible and increase your visibility to the people that matter in your job search. So we’ll link to some of those other episodes I mentioned in the show notes.

Sarah Doody [00:14:48]: If you’re feeling stuck or invisible in your job search, I really hope this reframes some of the things you absolutely need to be doing and helps you have a why behind some of these things. So even if you hate LinkedIn, fine. Hate it. But now you understand why you need to show up there, for example. Alright. That’s all for today. I am an open book. So if you have questions about the UX job search accelerator program that I run, slide into my DMs on LinkedIn.

Sarah Doody [00:15:23]: I’m very easy to find. We’ll leave a link in the show notes or just go search for Sarah Doody, d o o d y, on LinkedIn. And I’m happy to chat through any questions you have about how my team and I can help you get hired faster and position yourself for a 5 figure salary increase this quarter. Alright. I’ll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the career strategy podcast. Make sure to follow me, Sarah Doody, on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn. If anything in today’s episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear about it.

Sarah Doody [00:15:59]: Tag me on social media or send me a DM. And lastly, if you found this episode helpful, I’d really appreciate it if you could share it with a friend or give us a quick rating on Spotify or review on Apple Podcasts. Catch you later.