Hidden costs of navigating your UX job search alone

Sarah Doody [00:00:00]: Just because someone put UX career coach in their LinkedIn headline, doesn’t mean they’ve actually helped people get hired or that they themselves have successfully been hired, unfortunately. So we really, really need to be vetting who we listen to, and that’s what successful people in their job search do. 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.

Sarah Doody [00:00:54]: Ready to level up your career? Let’s get after it. Hey, friend. Welcome back to another episode of the career strategy podcast. Now today, we’re gonna discuss the hidden costs of navigating your job search alone. This topic has been brewing in my mind for probably six months or so, and the reason that I think it’s so important to address the problems associated with navigating your job search alone are because every time I log in to LinkedIn, I see posts where people are expressing frustration, expressing feelings of self doubt, and lack of confidence, and frankly, desperation when it comes to their job search. And they are just not able to step outside of their situation to understand why that is happening. And the root of why so many people apply to hundreds in jobs and don’t get interviews, feel like they are inadequate, unqualified, or just should leave the field altogether, or experience loneliness and other feelings of isolation and things like that, it all roots back to navigating your job search alone. So today we’re going to talk about why your job search is not just about applying to jobs, it’s really a process that requires strategy, that requires positioning, and most importantly persistence.

Sarah Doody [00:02:38]: But if you’re going at it alone, you may not realize all of the byproducts of this DIY approach. So today, we’re gonna unpack the real impact of a DIY job search, the time wasted, the missed opportunities, and honestly the mental toll that all of this takes. Plus, I’m gonna give you some tips on what you can do differently in your job search. So first of all, let’s dive into this DIY approach to your UX job search and some of the costs associated with that. First of all, time. Right? This is honestly the most expensive hidden cost. Most people think I’ll just keep applying and figure it out as I go, and I’ll spend time collecting advice from people on LinkedIn or Instagram or watching YouTube videos or having coffee chats with people you ment on mentoring platforms and stuff like that. But every extra month you spend stuck in your job search is a month of lost income, is a month of relationships that you could have been building, is another month of likely your confidence being impacted.

Sarah Doody [00:03:57]: So this cycle of tweaking your resume, let’s say, or your portfolio and applying to jobs and waiting to see what happens, and then you don’t get an interview and repeating that over and over, that is a lot of time that you are wasting. And I think a lot of people in their job search get stuck doing busy work, meaning you play around with your resume one day, the next day you play around with your portfolio, the next day you play around with your LinkedIn, and then back to portfolio, and back to resume, and back to LinkedIn, and you do this over and over and over and over and over. And, I call these activities FSP activities false sense of progress. You are likely stuck doing these FSP activities that make you think you are spending time working on your job search. And if you’re spending time, it’s gonna kinda make you feel better about yourself and your situation. Right? But the difference is you’re spending time on things that are not moving the needle. Right? If you’ve been through this cycle of update the resume, update the portfolio, update the LinkedIn over and over and over, and you’re still not getting interviews, that time you’re spending does not have a good ROI. Right? So instead of engaging in these FSP, false sense of progress activities, we want to be spending time on more strategic things that are going to actually move the needle, and we’ll get to some of those in a moment.

Sarah Doody [00:05:33]: I will also link some other podcast episodes that will give you some ideas of how you can more strategically spend your time in your job search. For example, how to post strategically on LinkedIn if you’re actively applying for a job. We’ll link that in the show notes. So time, a very expensive hidden cost of the DIY approach. Second cost of the DIY approach is missed opportunities. So think about it, If you are spending all your time updating your resume portfolio LinkedIn, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, you are likely missing out on, for example, building relationships with people that might lead to them telling you about a job they saw that is exactly what you’re looking for. That means you’re also maybe not spending time on LinkedIn, engaging with people, and then therefore seeing posts that they may make that literally say, hey. My team is hiring for x y z.

Sarah Doody [00:06:38]: Email me or DM me if you think you’re a fit. Blah blah blah. Right? So in your job search, when you’re stuck in the weeds of all these super granular changes that you think are gonna make a difference, that means you’re not spending time doing high value activities such as building relationships with people, posting on your LinkedIn profile to further demonstrate your areas of interest, your expertise, things that you’ve been working on, etcetera. You really, really need to think of your LinkedIn profile, not just the things you post, but the comments you leave. You need to think of those as, like, little breadcrumbs of social proof to let people who might be thinking of inviting you to an interview or who have interviewed you and are thinking of inviting you to the next round. You want these breadcrumbs of social proof to be reminders of what you are awesome at, what you have worked on this week, two years ago, etcetera. So if you’re a user researcher, for example, and someone comes to your LinkedIn profile, and the past five posts that you’ve made on your LinkedIn profile are not related to UX research, but they’re memes that you found on someone else’s profile, or some cheat sheet about design systems, or, you know, something about AI that doesn’t have to do with research, what message is that sending to those people that might be interviewing you or that have interviewed you? Right? Sure. It’s fine to have interests outside of the core kind of components of your literal job.

Sarah Doody [00:08:34]: However, when you are in an active job search, you want your LinkedIn posts and comments to be an extension of, for example, your resume or an extension of what you’ve talked about in interviews. So if if I was a user researcher and I was in an active job search, I’d exclusively be posting content related to UX research. Now that doesn’t mean I need to be writing, you know, four articles a week about research. I might just listen to a research podcast and post on my LinkedIn profile two takeaways from that podcast. Right? Then when someone comes to my LinkedIn profile, they’re seeing further evidence and examples of my, expertise, of my interest, and experience with user research. Okay. So missed opportunities can happen when you do this DIY approach to your job search because you get stuck in all of these nitty gritty things that you think are making a difference, but are then taking away time that you could have been spending engaging with people, building relationships, and posting strategically on LinkedIn. Alright, let’s keep going.

Sarah Doody [00:09:55]: Another cost of your DIY job search, if you’ve experienced that mental burnout, emotional burnout, or feelings of self doubt, imposter syndrome, etcetera, when it comes to your job search, it’s likely a byproduct of this DIY approach. And the fact that you are approaching your job search alone in a silo because you’re worried to let people know that you’re looking for a job, or you feel shame around the fact that you can’t figure this out, right? And here’s the thing, when you do things alone it’s a lot harder than doing it with other people. And this is not just related to your job search. If you think about other areas in our lives, right, whether it’s various elements of fitness, you wanna lose weight, you wanna gain muscle, you wanna train for a marathon, It is a lot easier to do those things in community with other people because you have that support system, you have accountability, and you have a trusted group of people that you can turn to that you know will get you. I have trained for multiple marathons, and I can a % tell you it’s a lot easier to do it when you are doing it with a community or with friends. Because on those mornings that you don’t wanna wake up and get out of bed and go run 15 miles, you know there’s going to be other people doing it at the same time and or you’re letting them down if you were all gonna run, you know, physically together in a group for those 15 miles. Right? So when you are experiencing these mental and emotional tools that can come in your job search, it’s probably a giant red flag that you are too isolated, that you’re not able to lean on a trusted group of people who get you right. And this lack of structured support and community, etcetera, leads to a ton of overthinking and second guessing and blaming of yourself or projecting around why you didn’t get the interview.

Sarah Doody [00:12:23]: And you assume there’s something wrong with me or someone was better than me or they didn’t like x y z. Right? And I’ve talked about this a million other times on this podcast, but if you are ghosted or if you don’t receive the interview or if they don’t provide you with feedback after an interview, it’s not because they’re trying to be jerks and ruin your life and make you feel like a terrible person. Recruiters are human. They’re doing their jobs. They’re often recruiting for multiple roles, and there have been a lot of layoffs in recruiting and hiring over the last couple of years. So they’re likely overwhelmed in their own jobs, And there’s many reasons why they can’t provide feedback. Legal reasons that the company imposes on them, time. Right? If 400 people apply to a job and only 20 move on to this screening round, how is that recruiter supposed to message the other 380 people that didn’t move on to the screener round? Right? 380 times one personalized email per person, that is a lot of hours.

Sarah Doody [00:13:38]: So mental and emotional tool. It happens, but it’s more likely to happen with this DIY approach because DIY means you are approaching all of this alone. So those are some of the tools and problems and challenges that are a byproduct of the DIY approach to your job search. Now let’s flip this and let’s think about what successful job seekers do differently. Number one, they treat their job search like a UX project. They treat it like an experiment, and they put on their hat as a product manager even if they’re not a product manager, and they apply basic product management and product strategy principles to their job search. For example, they treat everything like an experiment. What does that mean? Well, instead of trying to make the perfect resume, the perfect portfolio, for example, they understand, okay, my resume or my portfolio needs to be good enough.

Sarah Doody [00:14:45]: Because if I try and perfect it, what am I doing? I’m not applying to jobs. And if you spend three months trying to perfect your resume or portfolio, you’re not applying to jobs. And as a result, you are not testing your resume or portfolio. Right? And there is a strong likelihood that you can get hired with a good enough resume or a good enough portfolio. Now I will say, you might be listening to this and thinking, no. I don’t believe you, Sarah, because I’ve already applied to 200 jobs and not get an interview. Chances are your resume is inadequate or your portfolio is inadequate. We see so many people join us in career strategy lab, having done just that, applied a hundred of jobs and not get interviews, and they think their resume is awesome or they think their portfolio is awesome.

Sarah Doody [00:15:39]: And we take a look at it, and we’re like, you’re making these seven mistakes that we see all of the time. And then they fix those mistakes, and they start getting interviews. So you need to put on your product manager hat and treat everything like an experiment and understand the longer you chase perfection, it’s really meaning you’re not applying to jobs and therefore you don’t know if your resume was good enough two weeks or two months ago. Right? Another thing that successful people do in their UX job search is they consider the users, just like we do with products. Right? We do user research. We understand our users to figure out their needs, wants, desires, etcetera, and then we design the product around that. Obviously, of course, taking into account the business goals and things like that too. But in your job search, who are the users? Well, it’s the recruiters, the hiring managers, the people that might be interviewing you, and yes software involved in hiring commonly referred to as the applicant tracking system or ATS for short.

Sarah Doody [00:16:51]: And so many people treat their resume and really their portfolio as this opportunity to express their personality and design skills and, you know, all of this stuff, their passions and life interests and things. And, sure, it’s great to have all of those things. But on your resume and in your portfolio, that is the time to really think like a lawyer and show the evidence very clearly and give people zero reason to doubt that you are the person they want to hire. That is how you need to think about the users of your resume, of your portfolio, etcetera. You need to stop getting, honestly, bad advice from people out there who say your portfolio should show your personality. It shouldn’t. Your resume should not. It’s not the time to put the nice logo that you made for yourself on your resume.

Sarah Doody [00:17:52]: And I know this sounds kind of harsh and blunt and potentially mean, but guys, I’m just saying this because this is the exact advice that people who followed who have then gone on to get hired. Your resume should be boring. Your portfolio, the design of it, it should be simple. It should be minimalist. It should not distract people from the message that you’re trying to communicate in your portfolio. So we need to remember the users of the job search, the recruiters, the hiring managers, people that might interview you, and the software involved, and we need to design and write for them. Alright, Another thing that successful people do in their UX job search is they learn from and invest in tools and guidance that have a track record, and they don’t try and reinvent the wheel. I see so much advice about portfolios and resumes and the job search on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on YouTube, etcetera.

Sarah Doody [00:18:58]: And frankly, a lot of that advice is inaccurate, and a lot of those people have not been involved in hiring. Some of them are still in the middle of your job search. Do you want to take advice from someone who has been in a job search for one year? Personally, I don’t. But a lot of people in UX and product, and I’m not gonna name names, but I see them on LinkedIn. One month, they’re lamenting in a post how difficult their job search is, and then a few weeks later they’re posting that they offer UX career coaching. And I just think to myself, something’s off here. Do you really wanna learn from the person that still hasn’t been hired after one year? Right? So piece of advice here is you really need to vet who you listen to on LinkedIn, on social media, on phone calls, etcetera. And just because they tell you to do something doesn’t mean it’s true, doesn’t mean it’s going to work.

Sarah Doody [00:20:04]: Just because someone put UX career coach in their LinkedIn headline doesn’t mean they’ve actually helped people get hired, or that they themselves have successfully been hired unfortunately. So we really, really need to be vetting who we listen to, and that’s what successful people in their job search do. They don’t follow advice blindly. They take the time to do their research and really understand is this person worth listening to, what’s their track record, have they actually helped people get hired, etcetera. Alright. So next up is the people who are successful and get hired, like I said, act like the product manager of their job search, which also means they create structure, they create accountability, they create timelines, etcetera, and they take some initiative to do this for themselves, or for example, they leverage programs like career strategy lab, where we will give you timelines, where we will hold you accountable, where we will give you checklists to stay on track, etcetera. Now we’re not going to call you on the phone and coax you to, you know, get out of bed on a Saturday and work on your resume or something. You have to take some element of personal responsibility.

Sarah Doody [00:21:27]: But within the structure of career strategy lab, we have, for example, check-in forms you can fill out. We have accountability posts on a weekly and daily basis to help remind you to take action in your job search. Another thing that these people do is they take time to get feedback about their resume portfolio, etcetera, early and often. Many of you are stuck in a cycle of, like we talked about, perfection. And you don’t seek out feedback about your resume portfolio, etcetera, because you’re embarrassed or you’re nervous etcetera. And you need to get over any fear around receiving feedback because, as we know, the longer you spend tweaking all this stuff, then the higher the chances that you’ve made mistakes when if you just sought feedback two weeks ago or two months ago, you could have fixed that mistake and not wasted two months of making changes. Right? So getting feedback early and often and letting go of any ego or fear or shame or whatever around receiving feedback. We just interviewed someone, Steven, actually.

Sarah Doody [00:22:48]: I will link to his interview in the notes below. But Steven was user researcher is a user researcher, actually, switched from kind of working in podcasting and other things. And he said that one of the things he really appreciated in career strategy lab was our critiques, critiques of your resume, portfolio, etcetera. And Steven said knowing that he could submit something every single week, actually two things, helped him stay on track and keep making progress. And he said he avoided the temptation to perfect things, and even if he just made two or three changes to his resume, for example, he would submit it so we could keep getting that feedback. So that structure, the accountability, and expert guidance is so so important, and those are more things that people do who are successful in their job search. And lastly, these types of people surround themselves with the right people. We talked about this earlier, right, when it came to my marathon training.

Sarah Doody [00:23:51]: If you are in your job search, I cannot stress enough the importance of having a community, having a trusted space. This is super important because I know many of you don’t want to post on LinkedIn that you’re in a job search, etcetera, especially if you’re trying to leave your current company and you don’t want your boss to know. Right? But another reason that it’s so important to have a community outside of LinkedIn is the following. LinkedIn is kind of like I said, it’s a billboard, an extension of your resume, of your portfolio, etcetera. And if someone comes to your LinkedIn and the last five posts are you complaining about recruiters, talking about how crappy, you know, your last interview was, complaining that you’ve applied to 50 or a hundred jobs and not getting interviews, etcetera. That is not creating a great first impression about you. Right? And those posts are not showcasing your skills and experience. Right? No one wants to hire someone that’s negative and complains and just airs grievances publicly on LinkedIn.

Sarah Doody [00:25:01]: So this is why it’s so important to have a community that’s not on LinkedIn because you don’t want your LinkedIn to be sending an impression that you are going to spew and breed negativity on the team that person is hiring for. Alright. So how can you break free from this DIY approach to your job search? Number one, you need to recognize when you need support. This is very simple. If you’ve been stuck in your job search for months and if you keep saying I’ll apply for that job once I finish my portfolio, or if you’re applying to jobs and you’re not getting interviews and you feel like you’re stuck in a black hole, I wanna tell you you don’t need to work harder. You don’t need to apply to more jobs. You need to work smarter. You need to work more strategically, and you need to get out of this solo and siloed approach.

Sarah Doody [00:26:04]: Now what is the difference between working hard versus working smart? I’m glad you asked. Alright. So UX professionals know that research and strategy and iteration lead to better outcomes. Right? So why the heck wouldn’t you apply that same thinking to your job search? Now let’s think about how this non DIY approach will benefit you in your job search. Number one, it’s gonna save you time and energy. Right? It could also save you money because you, number one, could get hired faster, so you’re gonna start earning that income sooner. But also, it could help you avoid the hidden costs of those three resume reviews that you had someone do, and those seven webinars you paid to go to, and those five career coaching sessions that you paid someone to do with you that honestly really didn’t move the needle for you. So structured approach can really help you save time, energy, money, etcetera.

Sarah Doody [00:27:15]: Because instead of having this piecemeal approach that you are trying to put together, you could instead have an exact plan of what to do in your job search. So when you sit down to work on stuff, you’re not deciding what to do, and instead, you’re just doing. And that takes you from a place of frustration to a place of momentum. So let’s do a quick recap here. Searching for a job alone comes with a lot of hidden costs, time, money, missed opportunities, and a lot of frustration. Right? And the most successful job seekers treat their job search like a project. They put on their product manager hat even if they’re not a product manager, and they apply basic principles to this. They strategize.

Sarah Doody [00:28:08]: They iterate. They seek feedback early and often, and they adhere to a schedule. Now you don’t have to do this alone because when you do, you experience all of the problems we talked about in this episode. And instead, they seek out resources that allow them to spend all of their time taking action and not waste time gathering information and deciphering between conflicting information. So I want to challenge you to ask yourself, has your current approach to job searching been working, Or are you stuck in a cycle of applying for jobs, waiting, and getting nowhere? And if you’re ready to stop second guessing, to stop this DIY approach and start making real progress, then you’re kind of at a fork in the road. Right? You know you don’t want to DIY things, and so you have to figure out what’s the alternative to DIY. And my program, career strategy lab, could be a great next step for you if you want to get out of DIY mode. We give you the coaching, the curriculum, the community, and critiques to be able to apply to jobs faster and position yourself for a 5 figure salary increase.

Sarah Doody [00:29:34]: I’ve been doing this since 2017. I am not one of those people out there who just decided to become a UX career coach last year or five months ago and then is kind of beta testing my way through things right now. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve seen a lot of people get hired. I’ve talked to a lot of hiring managers, and our people get hired. So we know our program works. Right? See what I did there? Applying product to my own product, career strategy lab. Alright.

Sarah Doody [00:30:08]: So if today’s episode hits home for you and you wanna get out of DIY mode, then check the links in this episode or visit careerstrategylab.com or send me a message on LinkedIn and mention this episode so I know you’ll listen to it, and I’d be happy to chat with you. Alright. That is it for today. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I will talk to you in another episode. 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.

Sarah Doody [00:30:52]: 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.