Q&A With Career Strategy Lab Alumni: 2 Product Designers and A Senior UX Designer Who Were Recently Hired

Sarah Doody [00:00:00]: 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. 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. Alright.

Sarah Doody [00:00:40]: Welcome, everyone, to our somewhat quarterly open house and q and a for career strategy lab. Some of you have attended this before. Some of you are brand new. We’re excited to hang out with you guys today. The the goal is really to help you get answers to any questions you have, to definitely not listen to me ramble on, but listen to people who have been in your shoes, who are contemplating career moves, have initiated career moves, or are just trying to figure out what the heck is going on, you know, in the job market and the world of UX right now. So we have 3 of our alumni with us today, and let’s see if they are here yet. We have Melody is here. Sneha is here, and Ali will be joining us probably for the second half.

Sarah Doody [00:01:42]: She had a meeting got thrown on her calendar at work, which we can all relate to. So if you have questions, feel free to put it in the chat. Becca in the green and Sarah in, like, the merlot color, They are on Team Career Strategy Lab, and they’ll be jumping in to answer questions or tell me to pause and answer a question. So we will also make time for questions at the end. To get started, though, I just wanna jump right in. So, Melody and Sneha, I think it would be great to start out with each of you kinda introducing yourself and maybe telling people a little bit about, you know, what was happening in your career or job search or, you know, professional development before you joined career strategy lab? And, like, how did you ever enter our world and decide to work with us? So, Melody, do you wanna go first?

Melody [00:02:40]: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having, having me today. So I’m Melody, and I found CFO from one of the podcast. Sarah, actually, 1 or 2. And then I felt immediately, like, Sarah was giving, like, some tips that I feel is really, like, actionable tips already. That’s, like, even before I joined CSO.

Melody [00:03:08]: It was during the time that I am looking for a new, position. It was also at the same time with the time my previous Visa got expired, and I’m in transition to the next one. And as you know, like, the market wasn’t that not that great, not open to that much. And yeah. So I was kinda, like, doing my own DIY for couple months for, like or, like, half a year. And then and then I don’t really see any results, so I figured maybe I’ll give a shot on, like, CSL. And yeah. So that’s here am am I and after CSL.

Melody [00:03:49]: Luckily, before I finished the program, I found my position, and, yeah, feel free to ask me any questions.

Sarah Doody [00:03:56]: And can we say where you are right now?

Melody [00:03:59]: Currently, a product designer in JPMorgan. Yeah.

Sarah Doody [00:04:02]: Yeah. And we JPMorgan is such a huge company. I don’t know if you work with any CSL alumni there, but we definitely have, I think, at least 2 others who are working at JP Morgan, which is awesome. So finance is definitely an industry where we’re still seeing people get hired. Alright. Seha, do you wanna go?

Melody [00:04:23]: Yeah. Sure.

Sneha [00:04:24]: First of all, it’s so nice to be here after such a long time. Thank you for having me today. So, yeah, I would like to start. I was kind of in a journey or phase of my life where I started my career UX career, at Macy’s. And then after working there for, like, more than a year, and then I lost my work permit. And since I was waiting for that, it took almost two and half years. And then when I got it back, finally, and at that point, job market was so, not good. And although I was getting interviews, from pretty good companies, but at that point of time, I think something was not clicking for me, which I was feeling like when I was talking to someone, I felt like maybe I was not hitting the right spot when I’m talking to them.

Sneha [00:05:26]: So I always User to feel myself like something is missing when I’m talking to someone because they are coming to me. They like my work. I was not, like, not I wouldn’t say I was not confident enough to talk to them, but I think there was the things I was presenting to them or the way I was telling them, it was not, like, quite structured well. So that’s where I was missing. And that’s when I I always follow Sarah on LinkedIn, and then I got my hands on, I think one of the open houses like this. And I heard a few, part, like, participants there who were, doing the course and they’re sharing their experiences. And then I thought that why not to give it a try and, like, maybe I can find what I’m missing out when I’m talking to someone. So I I watched that open house, and, the next day I decided to enroll for CSL.

Sneha [00:06:29]: And I never regret, that I did that because it helped me so much, Like, right from starting from the compass statement where which was, like, the most difficult part when I was talking to someone, how to structure that, how to say, what to say if I’m telling them right, if I’m catching their attention or not. So everything was there, and that part came so well and all the coaches. I’m so thankful to Sarah and, Aaron and everyone. So everyone helped me to refine the compass statement and then the case study and everything becomes it started becoming structured. So when I was presenting someone, talking to someone, they started having some interest what I’m presenting on. So interview started going over the time, which was quite unexpected for me at that point. And then after, like, even before completing the course, I got this opportunity at Samsung. So currently, I’m at Samsung’s ecommerce team.

Sneha [00:07:34]: Recently, I got promoted as a lead designer there. So I’m leading their all watches, birds, PCs, tablets, everything, all there. That line of business, which we call as MCME. It’s all computing. So, yeah, I’m really grateful that I joined CSL, and that helped me a lot.

Sarah Doody [00:07:56]: Well, I’m thrilled to hear you are you just got promoted. That is amazing.

Sneha [00:08:02]: Challenging as well because it’s it’s like a lot of things changed, and I’m still transitioning into all those changes right now. So

Sarah Doody [00:08:12]: Mhmm. You know, one thing that kinda struck me as you were both giving us a little bit of your your background is I think one of the themes, if I’m hearing correctly, is that, you know, you you struggled with articulating your skills and experience from what you were doing before and being able to translate that into interviews or Sarah interviews or interviews that ran over and ultimately, you know, getting hired. So I’m curious from from both of you. You know, what what shift do you think happened that helped you be more effective at communicating, you know, the awesome work that you had done in a way that was more effective than how you were communicating it before. Does anything jump out to either of you?

Sneha [00:09:08]: Yeah. I would say the the portfolio. I worked only on one case study because I felt that that was something was, pretty significant impact I made while I was working at Macy’s, and it was kind of a new experience in the deferred payment plan, and it went so well. I also got, like, a award from the CEO for that for, the business impact in court. So I I I was only concentrating on one case study rather than having more of them. So and that kind of helped me to structure it better because when I was following CSO’s guidance, like, how to, structure the case study, I found that there are, like, lot of things which I was missing out, earlier. Like, I was not showing them the proper timeline, not showing them like, what made the impact for that particular project. And so I would say everything that came across, with the with the Doody materials in the CSO, it it really, helped to articulate the thoughts in a better way,

Melody [00:10:17]: if that makes sense.

Sarah Doody [00:10:18]: What about you, Melody? Does anything stand out in terms of, you know, how you were communicating, what you’ve what you’d previously done in roles and and that shift between what you did before joining CSL and and after CSL?

Melody [00:10:34]: Yeah. So Sarah. I was I was actually trying to answer one of the Oh, okay. Attendees’ question.

Sarah Doody [00:10:39]: No problem.

Melody [00:10:41]: Yeah. So Sarah. I wasn’t paying attention fully on the It’s okay. Answer, but, yeah, but I can share my experiences about yeah. I for me, I I heard I I’m not sure if I pronounce it right. Apologies if I pronounce your name wrong, but I agree with you that the combat statement, was something actually I kinda missing. I’m not the person that really good at, like, advertising myself as as, especially, like, on the writing because, you know, having a complex statement, and then that really also help you craft, help help you help me also to craft the, resume pretty well. And, like, CSL and all the coaches really help me, like, look at the my resume and then even, like, give a lot of supporting be because I already hit a lot of wall, and then they they are telling me that, actually, I have a lot of great points I can show.

Melody [00:11:33]: I just I don’t know how to craft the words. I don’t know how to use the better words and put it together in a more concise way. On the top of that, also, my portfolio, I was actually having a struggle before joining CSL that my portfolio is much more because I it was a I my project I was trying to present, it was their, like, all year round project. And then there is a lot of details going on, and I’ve been trying to, like, including all sort of detail, try to, like, present myself. But, actually, that run into the problem that, hiring managers, when you present the project, they get lost a bit in the details, and too much too much details is popping up. It’s not always good. And having CSL here, we have a monthly, portfolio presentation, and that also give me a chance to, like, really present my stuff in front of everyone that, can be another practice. And everyone actually and, also, the crowd was also all in my same feed.

Melody [00:12:35]: They all give, like, really good, supportive feedback. And, also, as well as we like, we can also constantly submit our portfolio piece to the coaches here. Like, they will give a lot of, like, feedback, constructive feedback that I can work it on. So I really feel like there is a group there to, like, working towards similar goal. I wouldn’t say same goal because everyone have different goals. Yeah.

Sarah Doody [00:13:01]: Yeah. I I wanna point out 2 things you said. You know, this this notion of being surrounded by people who are all in pursuit of a goal. And like you said, your goal may be different from someone else’s goal in terms of you wanna get hired versus someone else wants to get promoted versus someone else just wants to be ready in case an awesome job lands in their inbox or they unexpectedly, you know, are are a part of a reduction in force or, you know, sometimes people just want to they kinda feel like they’re at a fork in the roads in their career, and they wanna figure out where am I headed. Like, what are my short and maybe long term goals? And so I think regardless of whether or not you have the exact same goal as someone, being surrounded by a team, a community of people that are focused on advancing their careers just helps push you, helps create some accountability, and, like, gives you a a UX space to celebrate and vent. Let’s face it. You know? You can’t, like, always go and write ranting posts about on LinkedIn or tell your friends or family and stuff. Right? And so I love that part of what you Sarah, but one of the other things that Sarah out, you said you struggled with User the phrase advertising yourself in your career.

Sarah Doody [00:14:22]: And I love that phrase because it kinda a, I think a lot of people hear the phrase, like, advertise yourself and are horrified because they don’t wanna promote themselves. But if your goal is to communicate your value, to get a promotion, to get a job, etcetera, you kinda have to advertise yourself, which is why, you know, we have this kind of framing of treating your career as a product or as we say all the time, the product of you. And I’m curious, you know, when I say the product of you for for Melody and Sneha, like, how did that reframe help you look at, you know, this journey you’ve been on of, in your case, getting hired? Or does anything stand out to you, you know, with that reframe that that we do almost weekly in CSL?

Melody [00:15:16]: I can actually add on the, here. Yeah. So to help make me, like so after I joined CSL, I know CSL all about the core idea, putting yourself as, like, a product. It’s funny how I was doing a product design for all these years, but I never really look at myself like that. And after I started, like, putting myself using the design thinking and my career into the product thinking, I think it really alleviate a lot more about you know, feel a little embarrassing start posting on the LinkedIn. Feel a little more open to the idea. Try to, like, advertise

Sarah Doody [00:15:57]: yourself. So that’s kinda really help help me on it, and then you’d learn also everyone was doing this with you together. So that actually also help it. Yeah. Yeah. Because, like, in order for people to know you exist, whether you’re Nike or Delta Airlines or Melody, you know, you have to make yourself visible. And in the same way that companies and products are doing advertising or Super Bowl or podcast commercials and stuff, you have to make yourself visible. And, you know, one of the best places to do that, love it or hate it, is LinkedIn.

Sarah Doody [00:16:35]: And if you can kinda overlook the parts of LinkedIn that, like, gross you out sometimes and look at it as a tool to help you be visible to the people, bracket your customers, then that can help you realize, okay. I’m using LinkedIn as a tool. I’m not, like, feeding the company. And in your case, it definitely helped you with that visibility. Sneha, I’m curious if you have anything to add to this.

Sneha [00:17:04]: No. I’m completely aligned with what Melody just mentioned. And, also, on the LinkedIn part, I always use to shy of to update anything on LinkedIn, like, even, like, the banner, the about section, it always not was much there. So when I started updating the LinkedIn, I found that, yeah, people started taking interest. They they started reaching out more because they now knew. Maybe they were learning more about what I was based on what I was writing on the about section. So I think even they before they move on to my portfolio, they check that out. They kind of getting glimpse of what was there and what it is about me.

Sneha [00:17:55]: So I think, yeah, that part really, really helped me being a part after joining CSL, yeah, I would say.

Sarah Doody [00:18:04]: Yeah. And it’s it’s so important to remember, you know, and think of think of companies, like, companies you encounter advertisements from every day. It’s not just about a customer encountering 1 Super Bowl ad or reading one of your emails or listening to one of your podcast ads or something like that, you know, it’s about the story and the message that is told through all of those touch points. And so like you said, your LinkedIn profile is just one touch point or part of this kinda ecosystem of your LinkedIn profile, your resume, your portfolio, old emails you send, LinkedIn posts you make, and even the comments you make. Like, those are all touch points. And when you start to think of them as this, like, ecosystem that works together to communicate and make visible the product of you, then, you know, people start to pay attention. But I think more importantly, and I think that you both alluded to this, is that when you get clarity on how to talk about the product of you, which is something we do at the very beginning of career strategy lab. We help you develop this career road map and this thing called the compass statement.

Sarah Doody [00:19:29]: But when you lock that in, it then makes everything else easier because it’s very clear the the traits and qualities and skills and experience you want your resume, your portfolio, your LinkedIn, etcetera, to to communicate. And as a result, you’re able to create those assets a lot faster than you were, you know, previously when you were trying to update your resume, say, before career strategy lab. I kind of have a follow-up question to this this idea of product of you. You know, we break down the product of you. If you think of a Venn diagram, you are in the middle of that Venn diagram, the product of you. And then we have these three circles. Right? We have designing the product of you, marketing the product of you, and selling the product of you. So one thing I’m curious for both of you is, you know, of those three things, designing, marketing, and selling the product of you, which one felt, like, the hardest before you joined Career Strategy Lab, and and how did that shift during your your journey with us?

Sneha [00:20:41]: Yeah. Go

Melody [00:20:42]: ahead. Yeah.

Sneha [00:20:43]: Go ahead. Go ahead.

Melody [00:20:46]: Yeah. So for me, I would say, like, advertising because I do have my portfolio already, before I joined the CSL, but it was not I guess, I thought it was okay. And until I joined it, it really took me a while to, like, craft it together with CSL coaches. And that I think before I joined, also, I am I feel like I apply a lot of position, but then not really have any reply. And I that’s where, like, actually struggle me a lot that I started to question myself. Like, was it because it’s just, like, I’m not that great? And CSO really helped me that kinda at least give me a structure, like, when I join in, like, so I have a structure to follow. And then I I already I joined it, so I give it a shot on this. So I try it, and and it helped me craft a like I mentioned it beforehand, so I craft a better, resume, compass statements.

Melody [00:21:47]: So that also kinda all the stuff you have at the materials, it’s not just for rep. Like, you can’t you you’re not, like, just using on the resume. You can repurpose to your LinkedIn. You can repurpose to, like, somewhere else as well. So it really like, after I update my LinkedIn profile, that started to, like and then I start to feel good about it. Like, okay. I think this is not looking much better. And then slowly, you will start to see some, like, result.

Melody [00:22:14]: And funny thing is after, like and then also after I update my resume, maybe it’s because the the system finally went through or something. I applied the job myself. I actually got the interview on it. So I would like to say I I trust the process. Yeah. How about you, Sneha?

Sneha [00:22:32]: Yeah. Same with me. Like, before, before joining CSL, one thing I was really struggling out, which I already mentioned before, was, like, how to put myself, how to how to describe my past experiences, how to structure them well. And that’s where I, I I used to feel like I’m rumbling. Maybe I’m not, catching the attention of the person I’m talking to. And when I joined CSL, I got my hands on how to structure the Compass statement and how to put, your, like, work experiences and everything in a in a better way. So that’s where it started, catching up with everything because after I had a compass statement, although I was not, like, following it totally, like, word by word, but still I had it in my mind. Like, oh, this is what I have to say.

Sneha [00:23:36]: I’m like, this is how I have to present it. And it it it worked pretty well for me on on that aspect. And, like, getting live feedback from, coaches and the CSL sessions every week was also, like, very, very helpful because that kind of really helped me to get a better understanding of, how to or where to improve, the Compass statement, which previously, I was doing it all by myself without any guidance from anyone, and I was not, like, getting that sense where I’m going on. So this time, because of the coaches, and everyone else who were in those live sessions, they used to also put feedback, their comments, and that really kind of help to get a better understanding of how people are approaching towards their Compass statement versus how I am doing it and how I can do it better. And then refining it with the feedback from coaches, which really kind of was helpful. And similarly in terms of resume, before joining CSL, I also have some there’s some agency that kind of help with the resume stuff, and I kind of enrolled there. But I I don’t think that really helped us, like, helped me because it was not well structured and that I kind of got the hang of when I joined CSO and was started working on the resume and everything. Because after the ATS resume format, it it kind of I won’t say, like, all of a sudden, I started getting a lot of, like, job interviews, but it kind of increased.

Sneha [00:25:20]: I would say it increased in what it was as compared to before. So, yeah, it it was really a good experience with everything at sales in terms of marketing myself and everything. Yeah.

Sarah Doody [00:25:35]: Yeah. And I I like what you said at the end there concerning, you know, when you created this ATS or applicant tracking system kinda optimized version of your portfolio or resume, sorry, you know, you started to notice a slight increase in response and things like that. And this is why we have people make 2 versions of their resume because the ATS is not there to robo reject you and gatekeep. It’s there for hiring managers to organize the hundreds of candidates that apply to roles, and so we have to make sure that the you as a candidate, when you apply, don’t have formatting mistakes or issues with your resume that cause the ATS to never put your resume in front of the human, and it sounds like maybe that may have been happening to you previously where something about the formatting or the content wasn’t getting you higher up in kind of the ranking of candidates who had applied. So that’s something we hear quite often. Like, as soon as I made updates to my resume or my LinkedIn, I started to see more inbound requests to to get interviewed or see more responses once I did apply. And another thing that’s that stood out to me here is that I think the notion of, like, dealing with one of the mindset things that we see all the time around perfection and thinking that you need to have the perfect resume or the perfect portfolio or the perfect LinkedIn profile, you know, to to be ready to apply or to put yourself out into the world. And one thing we see, and I’m curious what both of you think is, you know, just making very simple yet high impact changes can move the needle significantly.

Sarah Doody [00:27:38]: And Sarah and Becca, I would say, like, at least once every other week, someone says, oh my gosh. I didn’t even make it halfway through the resume module or the portfolio module. And I applied, and I got an interview. And then I had to present this project for my portfolio that I kinda thought was a little trashy, but they loved it. You know? And so it’s so important to remember that because I think many of you here maybe feel the weight of trying to make the perfect, you know, portfolio, resume, etcetera, and we’re here to tell you doesn’t have to be perfect. And it goes right along with our product analogy. Right? Like, products have minimum viable versions, and if you make the minimum viable version of your resume portfolio, etcetera, it’s probably gonna move the needle. Alright.

Sarah Doody [00:28:31]: I I wanna go back to my questions so I don’t get off track here. We were kinda just talking about this mindset. You know, we’ve talked a lot about, like, the transformation of your career materials, your career marketing materials, your resume portfolio, etcetera. But I’m curious, you know, thinking back to your time in CSL, what were some kind of mindset things that in hindsight you realize were were holding you back? And how did CSL help you with some of those things? Does anything jump out to you concerning mindset? Because some of the things we hear and maybe in the chat, if you can relate to this, let us know. Now we hear a lot of things about imposter syndrome and feeling like I’ve done x y z skills in the past, but I don’t know if those skills are good enough to apply for the role at whatever company. Right? Procrastination is a big thing we deal with. You know, a lot of people say they’re going to put the time and the effort into doing all of these things, but it’s hard sometimes to actually follow through on that. And part of what people love about career strategy lab is this structure to kinda deal with procrastination.

Sarah Doody [00:29:50]: And another thing that’s really interesting is, you know, sometimes going back in time and reflecting on projects or companies you’ve worked with or worked at, it causes you to have to revisit, you know, a crappy boss or this project that, you know, burned you out or something like that. And so one of the things that we recently added in career strategy lab are these mindset calls, which are intended to help, you know, deal with these things that that come up. So Doody or Sneha, I’m curious if you have any thoughts on that. And I know Ali just joined, so I don’t know if you caught that whole question, but we’ll talk to you in a Sarah, Ali. But also feel free to to chime in here.

Sneha [00:30:33]: Yeah. I think for the mindset calls, I have those calls that I have joined, it really, was a feel good factor because hearing experiences of others, like the struggle that we are going through and that similarly what they were going through and how they are coping with those things, it kind of, gave a common area to discuss those and kind of share, feelings and thoughts. So I I think it was, kind of a space where we used to learn more about everyone’s Sarah. Like, how they were, like, how they were getting, the interviews and how they were managing, this portfolio sessions, or maybe how they are, getting back their confidence, or what was the what was the struggle that they were, having at that point and how they were recovering from those. So similarly, because I was at that point where I, was getting through the interviews, but I guess, at some point, my case studies, or maybe even when I was introducing myself, it it wasn’t moving the needle, I would say. So at some point, I felt like, having, the everything, like, more structured way, it kind of really, helped. And to hear from others about their experiences during those mindset calls, it it really helped to get a better understanding of how to deal with those challenges and overcome them.

Allie [00:32:16]: I kinda look at the mindset calls as therapy. It’s a good word for it. It’s very validating. I think Erin and Becca are always like, you shouldn’t think that way. Come on. You’re doing better than that. So I do think that’s better than that. In nice in a nice in a nice way.

Allie [00:32:32]: Yes. Yes. They’re like, why aren’t you thinking that way? So I I know that the reason why I mostly, like, went to a mindset course or if I just had questions, like, about the material in general and how to approach them. But most of all, it was just validating, and you feel less alone because everyone’s going through the same struggle you are.

Sarah Doody [00:32:50]: Thank you, Ali. Good to see you. One of the things that kinda strikes me about the mindset calls is I think sometimes you show up for these calls and you don’t have a question in mind, but sometimes just hearing what other people say, the questions they ask, or, you know, what our team says in response to questions kinda makes things click in your brain and you’re like, that is why I’m stuck. And it helps you put your finger on things that you didn’t even see or that you couldn’t give a label to. And then that helps, you know, pick you up out of the quicksands that you’re stuck in and allow you to keep moving and, like, not have that weight of knowing something is off, but not being able to articulate what it is, and that is so freeing. Yeah. Let’s see. I wanna see if we have anything in the chat that I wanna go to.

Sarah Doody [00:33:54]: I think we’re answering questions live in the chat. But, Ali, since Ali is here, Ali, do you wanna give us a quick intro to you? And the way we started this out was just tell us a little bit about where you were in your career before you encountered career strategy lab and, like, what was your journey like through CSL? And then what are you doing now? Because we know you’re up to some awesome stuff.

Allie [00:34:20]: For sure. Uh-huh. So, like, I have been in the field for, like, about 10 years now, and I had been following Sarah for a while on YouTube. So I knew that she had this, like, career strategy lab. I think where I was at from my mindset is my confidence was so low. I have been in my field. Like, I’ve been in my job for that job for, like, 2 years, and I really wasn’t launching a lot. And I think that hearing from Sarah that, like, just because it didn’t launch doesn’t mean I’m not a failure.

Allie [00:34:45]: I was like, oh, this could be the right program that I would rather than go into. Right? Because I think what I had, like, quoted it as is I lost my mojo. And so, like, every day, I was just, like, walking to work, and I just, like, wouldn’t really find it fulfilling or just, like, had no confidence to approach any of these, like, projects that I was doing. And I was like, oh my god. Do I need to leave the UX field? No. I do not wanna leave the UX field. So and ironically enough, like, within the first, like, 3 weeks of joining the program, we did a lot of, like, surface work, I guess, you could say, of, like, really acknowledging our accomplishments and reaching out to, like, past, like, coworkers, like, for any insight on, like, how they liked working with me and stuff. I think seeing the breadth of work that I created over, like, 10 years kinda brought back some of that confidence.

Allie [00:35:35]: Like, oh, I’m not interested. You know? I have I’ve been in here for a while. I don’t know what I’m doing. You know? And so I think that, like, more slowly as, like, you kind of laid this spring out, that’s when I was like, oh, man. I’m okay. I’m starting to get confident more and more confident. Like, even right now, I’m, like, doing my case studies. I’m, like, seeing, oh, I’m breaking them down more, and I’m becoming more confident in, like, that storytelling.

Allie [00:35:59]: And so, like, I’m just improving my skills also from, like, where I had my portfolio before to where I’m at now. So it’s just a constant improvement. And where I’m at now, I actually, recently accepted a new position. I was at Walgreens for a couple of years, and like I said, it wasn’t going so well. I updated my, like, resume, reached out to Live Connections, and then now I’m actually a senior executive diner for PepsiCo. Now I have 2 resist not drinking the Mountain Dew that’s complimently free in the office. It’s it’s rough. But, yeah, that’s where I’m at.

Allie [00:36:31]: I would say, like, from where see where I started in CSO, I feel like, yes. I did get my mojo back, and it’s a whole new mojo for working at Pepsi too. So That’s my story. Oh, so sorry. I will also note, I took a break in between because I actually started CSL during the holidays, and I got, like, kind of overwhelmed. So I took a break and I came back. And within, like, the 1st week of me coming back, that’s when I had gotten the, like, PepsiCo offer, and I immediately User, like, that cat typing gift. Updated my resume, did all this stuff, prepped for, like, sending out connections, and that’s when I was like, oh, this is happening.

Allie [00:37:10]: So you take that break, and then, like, stuff happens, like, really fast, and it gets you, like, really rocking and rolling.

Sarah Doody [00:37:17]: Good stuff. Ali, I remember, like, specifically on one of our tools here, like, talking about, like, the people are always trying to find, like, their flow with the materials and going through sprints, like, at their own speed. And for different people, it works in different ways. So we try to, like, talk to everyone and figure out what works. And I remember clearly, like, you came to 1 year, like, oh, I figured out what works for me. Would you mind sharing just a little bit about, like, how like, is that a learning about yourself and how to work through things? Like, would you tell people to kind of, like, find their flow? Do you have any advice, like, based on what you learned going through the sprints and also working with you?

Allie [00:37:51]: Yeah. I feel like I at first, I thought I had to go in order, and it was, like, really daunting, to be honest. Because I was like, oh, man. This is hard. But then, like, when I found out about, like, PepsiCo that had an open position, I immediately kinda skipped into the resume section. Right? And, like, watched a lot of the critiques. And I think it really helped to watch all the videos and then look at other examples as well because I’ve I’m, like, kind of a system thinker. I like to hone in and then, like, branch way back out.

Allie [00:38:20]: Yeah. And so that’s just, like, the way that, like, my brain works is I like to know the full kind of, like, scope of things and then, like, I pick, like, really what I want. I thought I at first, I thought I was going so slow because I was like, oh my gosh. It’s just taking me, like, a month to go to, like, sprint 1. But then I was like, well, I gotta, like, move around because, like, I’m starting to this is gonna take some time. So while that is fostering and I’m waiting for responses back, then I can work on this. And then the position had come up and it kinda it all came together after that. We’re like, oh, okay.

Allie [00:38:53]: So, like and right now, even though I’m, like, in, you know, my position at Pepsi, I’m still in the program trying to finish my case studies. So, yeah, I just I didn’t wanna give up. It’s hard. And, like, you know, I had a roller coaster of emotions going through it, but I knew that if I found out the way the right pathway like, look at me. I’m like, I’m finishing my case studies even though I already have a game. Like, I wanna finish. I wanna go out my way from c CSO. So

Sarah Doody [00:39:19]: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Thank you for sharing. I think it just speaks to the, like, there we all do things differently, and I I’ve, like, just seen patterns between people who have a background in design versus a background in writing and the way that it feels, like, doable to do things. And it’s really cool how inside the program, like, you can customize your path. And I think Sarah is gonna do, like, a bit of a video tour to kind of show people around, and then we’ll probably have some room for a couple more questions.

Sarah Doody [00:39:43]: Yeah. And Erin and Becca have heard me say this a 1000000 times, but I do Peloton, and one of my favorite instructors, Dennis, he has this quote I use constantly, and it goes, I make suggestions. You make decisions. And the idea is, like, our team can make suggestions of how to approach this journey of advancing your career, but we’re not mind readers, and we’re not, you know, gonna do it for you. So, ultimately, you know you best, and you have to take our suggestions and, a, like, do it, and, b, take what you know about how you work, what motivates you, how your brain works, etcetera, and do what’s right for you. So I wanted to just screen share because we’ve mentioned the Alia and Melody and Sneha have mentioned these, the idea of these sprints. And so just to give you super high level view, like, we just talked about the product of you, right, in our Venn diagram. What we’re doing is we’re teaching you how to design, market, and sell yourself, and so that breaks down into these 5 sprints.

Sarah Doody [00:40:54]: And I sprintified all of this, I don’t know, a year ago because I thought most people know what sprints are. And I think it just helps organize and focus and alleviate some of the overwhelm. So, you know, the first suggested sprint is really let’s make that career roadmap, get that compass statement in place, and it’s kinda like having a thesis in place before you go off and write the essay. If you try and write a essay without a thesis, not gonna go so well. So that’s that first thing we do. Then that second sprint, we’re trying to get you to optimize that resume and that LinkedIn profile so that it can start working while you sleep or while you’re doing other things and helping you build that visibility, etcetera. And then we start in sprint 3 your job search where you may or may not be applying to roles, but part of what you’re definitely doing is clarifying what jobs do you want next. If you know specific companies, then we have strategies of how to start building relationships with people at those companies, etcetera.

Sarah Doody [00:42:05]: It’s kind of like priming the pump so that after you make your portfolio in the 4th sprint, you have kind of people hopefully and some visibility on the back burner that then helps that 5th kind of ongoing sprint of actively applying to jobs, etcetera, go quite quickly because you did the work earlier to start building relationships and engaging with people at companies that you’re interested in working in or at. So those are our 5 sprints. But what does it look like, you know, once you literally come into career strategy labs? So let me just make sure I got my tabs right, because, you know, I have 50,000,000 tabs open. Okay. So when you come into career strategy lab, you’re gonna get access to a few things, but the things we wanna show you is our curriculum and tutorial hub, and then our community. So we use this platform and you get access to all of these courses. So we have designing your career roadmap for that first sprint, then the resume, then the LinkedIn job search and relationships portfolio, interviews, and then we have some other things which are more just resource hubs like all of the critiques we’ve ever done. So if you wanna see resumes of people who are also career switchers or something, you can find those there.

Sarah Doody [00:43:36]: And then, of course, recordings of all our calls and things that if you can’t make it during the week because life or work happens, no problem. All those recordings are there. But then once you go into a course, like, let’s say the job search one, that’s the one I pulled UX. It’s very granular and as as organized as we can make it in this software that we did not create, but very broken down into series of videos and or text based lessons with a lot of Google Docs that you can one click and copy it so you have it to keep forever and use it, you know, 2 years from now, 5 years from now, or something like that. And then, really, like, a playbook or SOP of how you’re gonna go about developing what we call the career value criteria or, like, just specifics of what you’re looking for in your next job so you don’t waste time applying to jobs that have deal breakers if you’re honest with yourself, project managing your job search, relationship building, finding people to to network with, tapping into your network, communities you belong to, cover letters, you know, it goes into immense detail, and it’s that level of detail for everything. And I mentioned these Google Doc templates and, like, we have this resume content, document for you where we tell you how to write your resume every single section. It looks like a lot of text, but it’s very purposeful because it’s gonna answer all your questions about your about me, work experience, you know, skills, and etcetera. So that is the world of materials, and I forget what oh, their name is Sarah.

Sarah Doody [00:45:21]: Sarah from Boston. She sent me an email after she joined, and she said if I had known how detailed all of this was, I would have joined, like, a few months ago. So I love that quote. I guess I should try and figure out how to communicate it more clearly. But sometimes it helps to see it. So that’s what we wanted to show you, the behind the scenes of that. And then the community, This is where we spend a lot of our time. This is where you’re going to connect with other people and alumni in CSL.

Sarah Doody [00:45:51]: We’ve organized this. Ignore all these icons on the left. These are, like, other communities I belong to that are not UX related, but over here, we have weekly sprint check ins because it’s very helpful to have that accountability to come in on a Monday and say, k. What am I working on? I’m gonna commit sprint 2, etcetera. And then you can see the other people who are gonna be working on sprint 2 that week and connect. We have a ton of events. We have a virtual coworking lounge where if you want accountability, you can come and, like, virtually check-in here and commit to spending 1 hour, 2 hours, whatever. And then down here, this is where most of the activity happens, the dedicated areas for each sprint, and then alumni lounge is really awesome because and job alerts too because when people leave career strategy lab, guess where they love to come back and let us know that their team is hiring or they themselves are hiring.

Sarah Doody [00:46:49]: So it’s a great way to create, relationships and get to know people at companies where you may wanna work. Sometimes even get a heads up before jobs are posted publicly too, which is really awesome. Erin, I think that’s all we were gonna kinda, like, tour around, right, if I’m not mistaken?

Sarah Doody [00:47:07]: Perfect. The critique stuff is the only other part that we talked about just if anyone has questions about that, but it’s very simple. We have a form that you can fill out. Like, each week, you can, at or up to 2 different career materials, and then you can

Sarah Doody [00:47:20]: add that here. Now that I’m looking at this, we should add it. I’ll do it later.

Sarah Doody [00:47:24]: Perfect. We’re always improving UX. Right?

Sarah Doody [00:47:26]: And then, like yeah. Then, like, if you’re feeling down or something, like, just come to the Hired Stories Sarah, and you’re gonna read incredible stories of people, you know, from UX researchers, writers, service design people. So many different people have shared their stories there, and I know it’s a huge encouragement to everyone else. Alright. I’m gonna stop sharing my screen, but if we need to, we’ll reshare it. Alright. I wanna see if, back to my questions, if any of our panelists have any words of advice or wisdom or tips, you know, for anyone that might be we’ll do 2 questions. We’ll do for anyone that might be on the fence or wondering if this is, you know, a good next move for them, Kinda what would you say to them or did you have similar thoughts? And then we’ll close with my final question.

Allie [00:48:28]: I think one of the number one things that I give others is give yourself some grace. This stuff is hard. I think that if anyone who’s on the fence with this, I think I use this as, like, kind of a kick in the ass. So just to be frank, it’s nice because I’m a very structured person. I like to set deadlines myself. I like to watch videos, follow along, see other examples, and so I think that that is super helpful. And it also gave me that confidence boost as well because, like I said, my mojo was gone. So I think that it just it’s amazing how much, like, has is in that course, and all the, like, supplement critique videos are super, super helpful as well.

Allie [00:49:09]: And it’s like real life talk. You know? It’s not like fluffy fluff talk. Like, it’s actually, like, legit. So I think for anyone who’s on the fence, like, this is, like, really good for someone who, like, really needs that structure and also just, like, kind of down with themselves, but you also have to give yourself braces as well.

Sarah Doody [00:49:28]: I love that. You said that so eloquently. Alright. Melody or Sneha, do you have any thoughts or wisdom to share?

Sneha [00:49:35]: Only one thing that I would like to mention that when I started CSL, I was not working. So I took the 3 months course, and I was able to dedicate a lot of time because just a disclaimer, there’s a lot of things to do here. A lot lot of things to learn, lot of career machinims to go over. Like, it’s overwhelming. And I was glad I am glad that I was not working at that time. Otherwise, it would have been a little hard to manage with me now how I am in a full time role. So one advice would be if you are working and looking for this, like, trying to get through c s l, give your yourself some time. Take, maybe, take the 6 months course instead of the 3 months so that there is some balance within the works and to grasp things better way.

Sneha [00:50:34]: For me, it worked out. As I said, I was not working, so I was able to devote all the time to this. So yeah. But that’s 1 cent, of advice. And the other thing would be connect with people. Networking goes a long way. Like, when we are working on those things, we sometimes forget that how important it is. Even if we update our LinkedIn, whatever we do, we we need to connect to people.

Sneha [00:51:01]: Like, I got into Samsung because I got a direct referral for this role from my previous manager. So the connection and everything and at that point of time, I was ready with my resume, portfolio, everything. And so I was like, okay. I’m ready to roll. So I was pretty confident at that time, so it really helped me a long way.

Sarah Doody [00:51:28]: Awesome. I love it. You were ready to roll when the opportunity landed in your inbox. Alright, Melody. I wanna echo Yeah.

Melody [00:51:35]: I wanna echo both, both of you guys talk to say, yeah, like how Ali was saying, giving a little grace for yourself. That’s not a easy way, especially in this market right now. So in the beginning, I also kinda, like, give UX kinda put myself a little too hard that so it does kinda it feels disappointed even faster, but then sometimes it was just, like, maybe the chances are not here yet. Also, same as so now I was talking about, like, just I have the same Experience as well. Like, because after I have joining the CSL, like, I feel more confident on my materials, and it’s when the chance came, so I’m ready to roll. So, yeah, I guess that two points I would give to the people who are on the fence. And, yeah, it’s a it’s a place that has more structured. I was same as how Sarah will join.

Melody [00:52:37]: Like, I was, more, like, part time, like, freelancing. It pretty much is, like, no job, like, if you would say. So I have much more time to, like, do it, but there’s, there’s structure here. There’s people, like, following along with you. And, also, even, like, your you will say classmates, but the classmates could be, like, 10 years or 20 years in the fields. They might be VP level or director level in a different company. I connect with them a lot on, like, not just on the the CSO call. Sometimes we, like, connected outside of call and then just I just, like, show up and then, like, I’ll would you, like, take a look on my resume, give a little feedback, or even just, like, practice interview? That really helped me as I’m more on the younger side of the crew.

Melody [00:53:28]: So that real they really give me a lot of, like, suggestions. In return, sometimes I would Sarah lot of it’s, like, user researcher. I’m designer. So in returns, I always offer, like, if you need help on the visual side, I will more than willing to take a look on it. So not just the coach, I guess, also as the crowd too. Yeah.

Sarah Doody [00:53:49]: Yeah. I I love that you touched on kind of the the span of and variety of people in CSL. Because one question we get quite often is, like, well, if I’ve been working in the field for 15 years, what am I gonna have in common with someone who’s been working 2 years? Right? And I think tackling everything related to advancing your career, whether it’s creating that road map, getting clarity, resume portfolio, you name it, It kinda doesn’t matter how many years of experience you have because the struggle is real for everyone. It’s just that you’re at different career stages. You know? And it’s funny. On the weekend, I’m a big skier, and so I was skiing with a couple of friends. And so I’m in my forties. The other guy was in his fifties, and the other guy is in his seventies.

Sarah Doody [00:54:38]: And we were having this lively discussion about dating. And it doesn’t matter that there’s a 30 year 8, 30 year age gap. It’s like the struggle is real regardless of what, you know, how old you Sarah. And I feel like advancing your career is one of those topics where that same, philosophy applies. Like, the struggle is real regardless. So, yeah, I think also it it helps you develop a kind of teachable mindset and opportunity to, like, stay open to learning from people who are more advanced in their career and who might have less experience than you because there’s still a lot to learn. So I love it. I love, like, the petri dish that we’ve created of people.

Sarah Doody [00:55:28]: Alright. I think that is all. Looks like we’ve been answering tons of questions in the chat here. And

Sarah Doody [00:55:37]: And our guests are headed back to work. Yes. Yes. Go to work.

Sarah Doody [00:55:42]: For for everyone else though, if you have questions you Doody not wanna ask publicly or that we’ve ran out of time to answer, feel free to just reply to the emails we’ve sent you. There’s probably one in your inbox reminding you to come here today, and either Becca Sarah or myself will get back to you. If you wanna talk to one of us 1 on 1, tell us that in the email and we’ll send you a link to do that. And the other just reminder is that you saw this in some of the emails, but at the end of April, on April Sarah, I believe it is, we’re increasing the price of career strategy lab. And so we wanted to do this open house to give you an opportunity to get your questions answered and gather all the information you need to decide if now might be a good time to join us. So that, Erin, I believe are the only super important announcements I had.

Sarah Doody [00:56:43]: Yeah. I think that’s everything. I just put the, link in the chat. So if you are interested in or wanna explore, we have financing options so that you can join interest free and not have to, you know, worry about paying right this moment. You can go ahead and check out that page and really reach out. We’re real humans. We care about all of our clients. And if it isn’t a fit, we will gladly tell you.

Sarah Doody [00:57:02]: So feel free to share more about what’s actually going on. And if it’s not

Sarah Doody [00:57:06]: a fit, we’ll let you know. Yep. And we have so many case studies and examples of people. If you tell us, like, specifics of your scenario, we can probably come back with an example of someone who is in similar shoes and, you know, tell you their story. Yeah. Alright. Have a lovely, lovely, lovely rest of your day. We will send out the recording tomorrow in case you wanna revisit any of this, and that is all, and we’ll also send you a few email reminders about this, deadline for Tuesday if you want to join us.

Sarah Doody [00:57:44]: Alright. Thank you, and we’ll talk to you soon. Bye, everyone. See you later. Thank you. 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 [00:58:04]: 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.