Episode 126
How a 25-Year UX veteran rewrote his career story and reclaimed his confidence
14 min listen
Episode 123
14 min listen

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Episode Summary
After 25 years in UX, Josh found himself at a crossroads, burnt out, uncertain about his future, and struggling to translate his leadership experience into a compelling narrative. Without recent hands-on design work or direct reports, Josh didn’t know how to position himself for roles that aligned with his real strengths. Like many UX veterans, he felt stuck in a UX job market that seemed to value UX portfolios over people.
Frustrated his previous job search strategies weren’t working and unsure how to position his leadership experience without recent artifacts to showcase, Josh joined Career Strategy Lab for structure, feedback, and clarity. That’s when everything started to change.
Through Career Strategy Lab’s community and proven process, Josh clarified what he wanted next in his career move, rewrote his resume and LinkedIn to reflect his leadership superpowers, and learned how to craft a portfolio that told a strategic story. He gained feedback, support, and a framework that helped him shift from reactive job hunting to intentional, targeted action.
In this episode, Josh shares how Career Strategy Lab helped him reconnect with his unique value, regain his confidence, and finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, even before landing his next role. His story is a powerful reminder that experience alone isn’t enough in today’s UX job market, strategy matters.
If you’re a UX veteran navigating your own pivot, this episode will show you what’s possible with the right tools and support.
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Episode Notes & Links
Episode Transcript
Sarah: [00:00:00] And I think it’s such an important point to make for everyone listening that like portfolio doesn’t just need to be beautiful visuals of stuff you made in Figma.
You can still have a portfolio if you are telling this story. Of how you spent six months wrangling stakeholders who were disagreeing on features.
Intro: Hey, there I am Sarah Doty, 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 CE. Know of your career and stop dreading Mondays ready to level up your career. Let’s get after it.
Erin Open House Intro: Hey, this is Erin. I am one [00:01:00] 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.
You can send Sarah a LinkedIn message, or you can email hello@sarahduty.com. We love the feedback and we wanna create more of what you enjoy and find helpful. All right, let’s get into the episode.
General Intro
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Sarah: All right. So yes, we have Josh who is here. , how this is gonna work. We really are gonna hear a little bit about what they’re doing now and their kind of before story, so to speak, really hearing about [00:02:00] what were they doing earlier in their job search, what was not working, what caused them to make a pivot, what did they do to pivot and how did that really help them get more visibility, get more traction, get more confidence, which is huge.
So first of all, I’d love just to do like two, three minute intro of who you are, what you’re kind of doing right now. And then we’ll get a little bit more into like , your backstory and stuff like that.
Josh 1
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Joshua Vaughn: Hey, thanks for having me Sarah. So I’m Josh Vaughn. I’m a user experience design leader with about 25, 20, 25 years of experience. I moved out to the San Francisco Bay area in 1999 after getting a master’s in cognitive psychology.
And I’ve been kind of working out here. Ever since I kind of jumped around to a lot of companies earlier in my career, but the last [00:03:00] 15 years I had really spent that two big enterprise software companies and I kind of, you know, had a long career at one and, you know, another long stinted another one.
And yeah, after kind of leaving that last one I was kind of feeling pretty burnt out, you know, kind of having a midlife crisis, I guess. Like, do I even wanna be still doing design anymore? You know, the market’s really changed and it’s a lot. Different than it was when I started and like the strategies I was using to find a new job, whether it was just, you know, reconnecting with previous managers and, you know, it just wasn’t really flying anymore.
And having a, you know, portfolio has just become a lot more essential than it was back then, you know, when I was looking for jobs, you know, in the early aughts. And I was also really having trouble because I hadn’t really been doing hands-on design that much anymore as, as I’d kind [00:04:00] of grown into being a leader.
And like, I don’t really use Figma that much anymore. You know, I spend most of my time, you know, organizing meetings and coordinating with people and making sure, you know, herding cats and doing that kind of the political work of, of user experience now. But I’ve never managed people, so it’s been a struggle to kind.
Tell my story in a way that’s really effective. And I found, you know, being in this program and listening to a lot of the other people who are in a similar boat to me and having them, you know, share their portfolios and LinkedIn resumes and get, getting feedback on it from everyone, the coaches has been just really helpful.
And I’m feeling better about, you know, where I want to take my portfolio now. I’m not finished yet and I don’t have a job yet, but yeah, I, I think it’s been a really valuable program and happy to talk about it.
Sarah: Yeah. And you know, a couple of things, strike me from your, your experience and maybe maybe people listening also have a [00:05:00] similar situation where, you know, you said you’re not using Figma all the time, like you’re in this leadership slash management position, but you’re not managing direct reports at et cetera.
And like that challenge of how do I create a portfolio as a design leader and give recruiters and hiring managers like what they want to see if I don’t have, you know, like piles of beautiful interfaces to put in front of them. And I think it’s such an important point to make for everyone listening that like portfolio doesn’t just need to be beautiful visuals of stuff you made in Figma.
You can still have a portfolio if you are telling this story. Of how you spent six months wrangling stakeholders who were disagreeing on features. You can still make a portfolio if you were doing a lot of research and never opened up Figma, and so portfolio, like, we really see it as a [00:06:00] storytelling tool that is very focused on telling the story of what you did despite, you not having beautiful interfaces or something.
’cause that is not, not the reality for so many people because you acts, it’s this umbrella with so many roles underneath it. And like a UX writer is not going to have a beautiful Figma style portfolio. Right. So yes, Josh, I think you’re a great example of someone who is, taking that challenge of telling the story of how you really tackled design like management, design, ops, almost and translating that to a portfolio.
General Question
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Sarah: as you’ve kind of heard, Josh became more confident with the portfolio as well. And so I want to hone in on how you feel your confidence changed, you know, compared to when you were first starting out with CSL and if there were any [00:07:00] other parts of it that you really think contributed to that confidence.
Josh 2
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Joshua Vaughn: it’s kind of a good segue into some of the thoughts I was having but even, you know, before you get into your resume and your LinkedIn and your portfolio pieces, the bit, the first sprint of the CSL program is like trying to, really working on your compass statement and trying to figure out what you want and in your next role and, you know, and getting feedback from people that you’ve worked with in the past and trying to think of what your strengths are.
And, you know, that was a really. Empowering part of the process for me. ’cause I kind of had really bad feelings about the way that I left my last company and the way things ended up. But when I talked to some of my previous coworkers and, you know, it was like, oh, you know, one thing that I really admired about you, Josh, is that, you know, you were able to run this whole review process and kind of wrangle all these people even though none of these people reported to you.
It’s like, you know, [00:08:00] anyone can be a manager when you’re managing people to report to you, but you were a leader, and it’s like, wow, that’s, you know, I hadn’t really thought of it like that before. and that really made me, you know, think about, okay, well what do I want to do next?
And what am I trying to do and how am I gonna sell that right in my. Resume and my LinkedIn and my portfolio, it’s like, I don’t want to be a designer in like a junior designer anymore. I don’t want to make a bunch of Figma mockups. I kind of want to keep doing the leadership work that I’m doing. Right.
And so that really affected, you know, how I, you know, wrote about myself and wrote about my accomplishments and the kinds of jobs that I was trying to apply for.
Sarah: Josh, you brought up something and it’s, it’s so, it ties nicely. But you mentioned this part of career strategy lab where we have you go back and ask, you know, former managers or colleagues, you know, who you feel comfortable with. [00:09:00] We don’t mandate who you need to talk to, but the activity is really, let’s go back and ask people who know you to.
Speak to what are your strengths, what are your superpowers, et cetera. And that activity can be so powerful because sometimes, myself included, we are too close to ourselves to recognize what we are great at. And we’re also too critical too sometimes, and as Josh said, like going back and reflecting with people that knew Josh quite well, even if, you know, the, there was maybe like team dynamics and stuff, or toxic culture or whatever.
Josh was able to extract these, these skills and, and experience that really then fed into how you, Josh, talk about yourself as a professional and what you kind of believed as your, your true skills and experience. Like, it almost like expanded your view of, of what you were good at. And [00:10:00] correct me if I’m wrong, but did it influence kind of where you wanted to focus on in the future?
Joshua Vaughn: Yeah, I think so. Like this job I recently applied for was more like of a design operations, design leadership role. And that was, you know, something that was maybe at a, you know, company that was a little, you know, in a completely different domain than the kind of things I’ve worked on before. So, just seeing that those roles were out there as opposed to all, like all the roles I was looking at before seemed to be not necessarily wanted what I wanted to do next.
Right. So we talk about a lot, you know, well, it’s better to really put in the effort to, you know, apply to, you know, five. Jobs that are really strong fit and apply to 500 jobs where you’re just, you know, clicking easy apply and not giving any specific thoughts to each one. It’s like this, I really wanted this job.
It was like I wrote a detailed cover [00:11:00] letter and you know, I got pretty excited about it, so I still haven’t heard back, but we’ll see. But even just fingers crossed, even if I don’t get it right, it’s like I, I feel better just knowing that there are positions like this out there or that that would be a better fit for me.
Sarah: I love it. I love what you said. There’s positions out there that would be a better fit for me because I know, as you said, you know, so many people are just apply, apply, apply, apply. And then, okay, what if you do get the job, but then six weeks in you realize, ugh, like this is not what I wanted. You know, you’re either gonna quit or you stick it out and it’s like, you don’t wanna end up in that situation, so it’s partially recognizing what you want in the future and then having that persistence and patience. And I know not everyone has, you know, the, the situation where you can be picky, but if you do, Josh , is a great example of how you’re literally doing that right now.
General Question 2
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Sarah: All right. The next topic it’s a little self-reflective, but I’m [00:12:00] curious, a couple of words or in a sentence, like how do you think you are different, now than before you said yes to career strategy lab. It could be one word, it could be a sentence, however you wanna kind of like, respond to that.
But what is your kind of just gut reaction to thinking about, you know, the before and after version of, of you, after you said yes to career strategy lab?
Josh 3
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Joshua Vaughn: I feel confident. I feel more clear about what I want next, and even though I’m not there yet, I think I’ve got a better sense of what I need to do to get me there. There’s still a little ways to go, but yeah, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel you know, right after you’re unemployed for a while.
It, it can get dark Yeah. In that tunnel. So, uh, it’s been a good way to see the end is inside.
Sarah: I, I love that analogy. And I think kind of the subtext to that is, not trying to conquer this all alone too, you know, [00:13:00] because not something that you can necessarily talk to your. You know, friends or partner or you know, other people, and eventually you kind of exhaust all the advice that they can maybe or maybe not give you.
And I think the community is such a, a huge part of of helping with giving that light at the end of the tunnel as you so, so eloquently said there.
General Question 3
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Sarah: Yeah. All right, last question, I promise. What is one piece of advice you would give someone who was thinking about or who joined Career Strategy Lab today? What would you say to them? It could be as simple or as not simple as you wish.
Josh 4
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Joshua Vaughn: The thing I’ve been struggling the most is just with the time management aspect of it. And if I could start it over, I would like really try to block out more time and devote to it every day. Sometimes, you know, I’m, I kind of get ribbed sometimes by the coaches for, like, I spend so much time [00:14:00] helping other people and, and giving advice to the younger people in the community sometimes that I forget to work on my own stuff and, you know, I’m, I’m still you know, trying to finish up that portfolio, but you gotta keep your days organized and try to.
You know, make time. Okay, here I’m gonna spend this much time on me and I’m gonna spend this much time networking and helping other people. And it can be hard ’cause there’s, there’s only so many hours in a day.
Sarah: yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s hard, right? Like, especially if your personality is like a giver and it fills you up to help other people.
Right. So it’s you, that’s all
Joshua Vaughn: these people were just telling me, made me a good leader, right? Me? Yes.
General Conclusion
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Sarah: Alright. I just wanna take a moment to thank Josh for giving us their time. To share about your experience. I think it’s just so [00:15:00] much encouragement and hopefulness can come from hearing from people who were recently in the shoes that, that many people are in here today.
So we just wanna thank you for your time and I know. people really, really appreciate it.
I think it just is a good reminder that regardless of how many years of experience you have or what you do in your specific umbrella of user experience the challenge of articulating your story, creating the resume, the portfolio, networking, everything it’s kind of just, something that doesn’t get easier just because you have more years of experience, right?
It kind of gets more complicated ’cause you have more experience to communicate, et cetera. And so I think it’s just an important reminder that career strategy lab is not just for, people with a certain number of , years of experience. ’cause as you saw. All these people have very, very different experience.
Alright. Thank you everyone. I hope you were encouraged [00:16:00] by the stories of people and thanks for coming. Bye everyone. See ya.
Outro: Thanks for listening to the Career Strategy Podcast. Make sure to follow me, Sarah Doty 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.
Catch you later.