From Laid Off to Senior UX Designer: How Sarah Landed Her Dream Role

Sarah Doody [00:00:00]: Despite a job description being written, all of this is out of your control. And if you don’t lock in this mindset, you’re going to have such a heavy feeling and be so sidelined with your confidence, with your mental health. And it’s just so, so important to remember that you don’t know why it’s a yes or it’s a no, and you just have to keep going. 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.

Sarah Doody [00:00:51]: 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.

Erin [00:01:06]: Hey. This is Erin. I am one of the coaches inside of career strategy lab, and I wanna let you know that this episode you’re about to listen to, number one is awesome, and number two is actually from our open house. So in this conversation, you should know that there were other people on this call, and there was a live audience. So if some of the editing seems a little bit weird or abrupt, that’s why it should still make sense for you. There’s so many gems of wisdom to grab from this episode. So we hope you enjoy. And if you do like this format where you really can get to know someone and learn more about their career journey, please let us know.

Erin [00:01:38]: You can send Sarah a LinkedIn message, or you can email hello@SarahJudy.com. We love the feedback, and we wanna create more of what you enjoy and find helpful. Alright. Let’s get into the episode.

Sarah Doody [00:01:51]: Welcome, everyone, to our January open house for career strategy lab open house slash QA about the UX job search. Why do we do these? Well, number one, there is a lot of doom and gloom on LinkedIn, and, frankly, I’m so sick of seeing it. And, yeah, the job market is tough, and at the same time, people are getting hired. And I think sometimes the doom and gloom kind of gets elevated on social media and in our circles, and so we do these open houses to share the stories of people who’ve recently got hired and or who are in the middle of a job search so that you can hear some positive stories, hopefully, some encouraging and uplifting stories from these people and a chance to kind of see and hear behind the scenes of what goes on in Career Strategy Lab, our three month UX job search accelerator, and have a chance to ask our team questions, ask other people questions who’ve been a part of career strategy lab. So what we have lined up for today, we have Sarah. So that’s our game plan. And I’m gonna pull up my notes here because we have a lot to cover, and I wanna keep myself on track because sometimes I go on tangents. So let’s do that.

Sarah Page [00:03:22]: Hi, everyone. Sarah Page. I’m based right outside of Madison, Wisconsin. It’s freezing. I have a hat on. It’s It’s cold here too. Just go just go with it. Yeah.

Sarah Page [00:03:33]: I have been meandering between marketing design, brand design, product design my whole career, and I was really struggling when I got laid off last of my portfolio on my website being the jobs and the work that I had, but not what I wanted to be doing, and then I was really struggling with getting around that. So, when I joined career strategy lab, don’t even know. Becca might know. I think it was last year. I really got some focus onto what I was looking for and helped narrow down on get my mindset right and really narrow in on what jobs I was looking for. And that actually helped me in my what do you call it, Sarah? You’re, like, when you’re targeting companies, I was like, I only wanna be in health tech or climate tech. And I didn’t use LinkedIn, but I did use, like, niche Slack communities to find those and target those types of listings. So I was hired for, senior UX designer, which the label is whatever to me.

Sarah Page [00:04:31]: I really just wanted to do impactful work, and we are building a diabetes life style management app from the ground up. And so that’s super exciting to me. It’s exactly what I was looking for, the impact that I could make. And the biggest takeaway for me was that my hiring manager called out how my portfolio told the story that he was looking for because it was in Figma slides and not an ever scrolling website. So biggest takeaway for me is on the portfolio.

Sarah Doody [00:05:02]: Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. I think your story is such a great example of, again, companies that need UX help outside of big tech and, like, med tech, etcetera, so so big in my opinion. And, yeah, that that point about your portfolio, you can find arguments for various types of portfolios all over the Internet, and the trolls will come out on LinkedIn every time I give my opinion. But we just we keep doing what’s helping people get hired, and it’s these portfolio presentations that tell a story that are easy to consume because they’ve considered the user of the portfolio. So, yeah, we’re excited to hear more about your story.

Sarah Page [00:05:47]: My story is a little bit different. So I was laid off as creative director in 2023 in December. And right away, I joined because I was like, I’ve been watching the job market. I cannot do this by myself. There’s there’s no way. And so the first thing for me other than the mindset was the resume. And I worked with Becca, and I was like, it’s too long. It’s too long.

Sarah Page [00:06:09]: There’s so much here, but it’s, like, almost a twenty year career. And I was really struggling with how do I connect all of this. Well, this is I was doing, like, print design, and this was, like, websites, but I wanna be in product. How do I make it make sense? And that was a big unlock for me that it it didn’t need to make sense for everyone, but it needed to make sense for the right person seeing it because of the amount of of people in the market. Like, it just needs to touch one person. And that person in the role that I got hired for was looking for a visual designer who knew UX. And so that was like, oh, I gotta target these specific things. And the resume really helped me get there.

Sarah Page [00:06:57]: And, admittedly, I didn’t do all of the other steps in a row, but I took all the information and just stored it. Because in the middle of career strategy lab, I decided that I wanted to start a product design focused freelance business. I had already always had freelance, but I really wanted to target these clients to kind of build up my portfolio. And through my network in, like, random email channels and random Slack channels, I landed one project and then a pro bono project that I used to build my portfolio. So I stopped in the middle to kind of just then UX my way through building the portfolio. And then when I I had a long term contract, thankfully, and once I knew that that was expiring at the end of this year, around September is when I when I found out that it was ending. So I was like, oh, shoot. I really gotta go hard now.

Sarah Page [00:07:47]: And that’s when I really started on my portfolio. And I I started with just two case studies of which I had just done those projects, so they were really fresh. And they were directly what I wanted to do, so that was super helpful because I could talk to them and be proud of them and not be like, yeah. I did this, but but I don’t wanna be doing that. But what was what I noticed most other than the portfolio and the resume was that because I have this extensive background, I was getting responses that I was overqualified and underqualified for the exact same job description, the exact same role from regular product designer level one junior to principal designer. It was the same response. You’re too qualified. You’re underqualified.

Sarah Page [00:08:35]: You can’t do this. And it wasn’t until I was able to let that go and say, the right person is out there. I got a little bit practice over and over and over again and thrown some loops in interview cycles because they say they want a behavioral interview, and then they’re like, okay. Show me some work. And you’re like, wait. What? I thought we were gonna I thought we were just gonna talk over and over and over again that I was like, whatever comes up, I’m gonna be ready because I can do this presentation, like, back of my hand. I can talk to people. It’s gonna be fine.

Sarah Page [00:09:03]: So it was really, like, having the conversation with myself of just letting whatever was going to happen happen that I was able to, keep landing interviews and just go with it. And it was really funny because, the job that I got hired for, they they asked me no questions. They asked me no portfolio review. It was just have a conversation with three different people. I was they were just vibe checking. I was like, I’m here for this. This is this is what I want because they had already vetted the resume, and they had already vetted the portfolio. And then it was just like, do we do we vibe? So I got really lucky and can realize that.

Sarah Page [00:09:42]: But getting through all those other steps in my head was a big unlock that I wouldn’t have had without CSL.

Sarah Doody [00:09:48]: Sarah, thanks for sharing that. And now I have a quick follow-up question. So this this interview process of the three interviews and never formally presenting your portfolio or talking through a project or anything, do you know, or do you have a hunch, or did you receive feedback that because of the quality of your resume and your portfolio, they kind of spoke for themselves and sold you, quote, unquote, so that the interviews just truly were conversations. You know what I mean?

Sarah Page [00:10:21]: Yeah. I think that it was the case because the person who’s the head of design technically is it’s still in the tool, is still a designer. So was able to pick up on my skill set without having those other being talked to. It’s also much more his way. He really wanted me to meet the the team, but I didn’t do that. I talked to, a recruiter which had no information. I talked to the hiring manager, his supervisor, which was up in level instead of I thought I was meeting with the team, and then the head of people, and that was it. So I was like, what? What’s going on here? It was really strange.

Sarah Page [00:11:01]: The other the other times, it was more interview loops, and I was getting passed on very quickly from the recruiter, from the hiring manager to the other people on the team, and I think for the same reason that the materials I had were speaking for themselves. And they really just wanted to look find that one person that they were looking for. And when I didn’t get passed on, it was for very specific reasons that I asked. Like, oh, this said designer researchers, but we really wanted a researcher. I was like, okay. Well, I don’t I don’t wanna do that, so thank you. That’s not where my passion is. But that you could have been very clear upfront that’s what you’re looking for, but, you know, you have to jump through the hoops.

Sarah Page [00:11:43]: But I I do agree with you that because my materials were at the level they were, that this hiring manager was like, I don’t need I don’t need to see anymore. Let’s just make sure that there’s a good cultural fit.

Sarah Doody [00:11:55]: Thanks for sharing that. Also, because I think this kind of mindset that you had of just letting go of outcomes in the job search, let’s say, meaning, like, you were unqualified for one role but overqualified for the other role that had the same job description and job title. And I think it’s just such an important reminder for everyone that despite a job description being written, all of this is out of your control. And if you don’t lock in this mindset, you’re going to have such a heavy feeling and be so sidelined with your confidence, with your mental health. And it’s just so, so important to remember that you don’t know why it’s a yes or it’s a no, and you just have to keep going. And like Sarah said, believe that it only takes one yes, and that company is out there. And is it gonna happen tomorrow? I don’t know. But Sarah’s story is such a great example of this.

Sarah Doody [00:13:04]: Alright. I kinda wanna switch gears, sir, because I know there’s some questions. Couple of people privately DM’d me here. Let’s get into the kind of the nitty gritty of, like, your new roles. And you, of course, don’t have to tell us your exact salary, but we’re curious, two things really, to hear about your roles. Number one, really, are they remote or in person, and did you try and negotiate that that offer, and what happened? So let’s just hear a little bit more about the details of that role. And then if if you try to negotiate, maybe what tips do you have for people?

Sarah Page [00:13:45]: My current role is a % remote. They call it home first. I think it’s because it’s a health tech. They would prefer you to not be at a coffee shop. So that it’s it’s home first, which is fine for me. And as I was listening to the recruiter and the hiring manager and then, I guess, VP on the experience side. I was collecting information along the way. Of course, the recruiter asked me first flat out, especially without getting any information for them, what’s your number? And I was like, I don’t really care.

Sarah Page [00:14:20]: Like, I I want a job more than I I want the the number. I’m lucky in that in that way and privileged that I live in a place that doesn’t have a super high cost of living. And so the benefits to have those for health insurance and stuff was high outweighed what the salary was. And, obviously, I want to be compensated for my worth, but it did not bubble up to the top thing. You know? What I was doing is their benefits. Culture was more important to me than the salary. So as I’m having these conversations, I’m gathering information that there are two junior designers on the team and especially the higher manager at least three times said that, you know, I’ve I’ve noticed that you’ve led a team before. Like, are you interested in doing that? And I would be like, you know, we can talk about it.

Sarah Page [00:15:09]: Super vague of leaving the conversation open. I’m like, yeah. Oh. So then when it came to the offer, the recruiter asked again what my salary expectations are. And so I knew what their number was. And now learning that they wanted a more senior position, I took the end of their number and made that the bottom of my number and then went up from there. And Mhmm. They went in the middle with a potential bonus and equity.

Sarah Page [00:15:38]: I didn’t negotiate from there because I knew that number was already higher than what I had told them the first time that I was looking for. And, like I said, it wasn’t that much important of importance to me because of all of the other things. But if it were lower, I you never know what to expect. If it were much lower, I would have negotiated to get at least what I was making in my last role, which was the number I was starting from, and they met me there. So I was happy about that. But, technically, I didn’t negotiate, but it was, like, around the way negotiating.

Sarah Doody [00:16:12]: Thanks for sharing that. Because I think just hearing, again, that thought that went into the whole offer and not just how many zeros are on the salary is so important because so many people get so fixated on, like, the exact dollar or the salary. Right? And you think, wait a second. If I add up the health care and this and that, and I can stay in my same house, and I don’t have to move, and the cost of living is low where I live, and the salary meets my needs and the role gives me experience x y z that sets me up to be in a put a better position to apply some different role five years from now. Like, all of that is often just so lost for so many people, and so I think hearing that will help a lot of people just think through that a little bit more clearly when they get offers. Alright. Our last question that I wanna wrap up with is really around what would you say to someone who’s considering joining Career Strategy Lab, and we could also sprinkle in if you have any advice for them. So maybe if they’re on the fence.

Sarah Doody [00:17:26]: Yes.

Sarah Page [00:17:26]: I was looking at the ROI on the program to where like, okay. When I land a role, what will the difference in my salary be? Does that pay for the program? Obviously, I was taking a leap of faith, but using specific language, like when, not if, I was like, yeah. This this I can make up for this, and the learnings that I will get are gonna be just kind of, like, frosting on that cake. I also bigger than that was definitely the community. Like, just sending your materials out into the ether and having no idea if anyone’s looking at it and having those eyes of, like these people have been in the industry. They know what works. They know what doesn’t work. And just having somebody that you know Becca looked at this with their own eyes and is a human and says, yes.

Sarah Page [00:18:17]: This is good. To have it like, oh my gosh. I’m not just invisible, and somebody is helping me was just that extra human touch that was super gratifying to be like someone’s finally paying attention. And, yes, Becca can’t give me a job, but at least I’m getting to that next step. But I think that my biggest advice and the biggest unlock for me along those lines was social media isn’t for me, and I wasn’t going to pretend that it was for me. And so meeting people in real life, I went to a conference out in, New York City in September and met people, designers in tech, and they were able to say, your portfolio is great. You’re you’re doing great work. And I was like, oh my gosh.

Sarah Page [00:19:01]: No one I didn’t know how to react because no one had said that before. I was like, really? Really? It is? That’s amazing. So, like, why why can’t I get anyone to respond? And them saying, it’s not you. I would hire you if I had positions open was that little unlock for me in my mindset that, like, it just has to be the right time. And all of these triggers are saying yes. It just needs to be that final one. And so that, for me, was a big difference when I started then to let go of everything I couldn’t control and just focused on, yep. I can be pe prepared.

Sarah Page [00:19:38]: I can do this. I can do that, but no one else knows what they’re doing, and I cannot control them. So I’m not even gonna pretend. That was the biggest stuff for me.

Sarah Doody [00:19:47]: Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. I think the the power of having other people validate what you’re doing is is so, so important, especially, like, job search and career and all this. It’s it’s often this topic that people feel weird talking about or you don’t wanna ask for help with stuff because you’re worried what people are will think. And I think the community is just so powerful in creating this place where people who are in the trenches doing the same tasks and having the same goals, like, can come together and not be distracted by social media. Right? If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t be on social media, but the train has left the station for me. So I I love that you’re able to to have, like, this community with CSL that isn’t LinkedIn, and it’s unlocked these opportunities to meet up with people in person, which is awesome that we can be doing that. So alright, that wraps up this open house where I’m going to let Sarah go back to whatever you’re doing for the rest of the day.

Sarah Doody [00:20:53]: I know everyone really appreciates you taking the time to share your stories, so thank you so much. Thank you for spending your afternoon or morning or evening wherever you are, and we’ll see you again sometime somewhere. Bye, everyone. 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. 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.

Sarah Doody [00:21:38]: Catch you later.