Episode 108
How a UX Specialist With 20+ Years Experience Got Hired After A Layoff With Only 1 Project In His UX Portfolio
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Episode 105
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Episode Summary
Facing an unexpected UX layoff and re-entering the competitive UX and product design job market can be daunting. This episode highlights the journey of a seasoned UX specialist (and author of a popular UX book) who successfully navigated this challenge, landing a job with just one case study in his UX portfolio.
Discover how creating a Career Roadmap helped Leon step back and look at his career so far, and where he wanted to go in the future, to create clarity and focus as he tackled his resume, portfolio, and UX job search. In the episode, you’ll hear the importance of emphasizing quality over quantity in your portfolio and how Leon got hired with only one project in his portfolio.
The discussion also explores the emotional aspects of the UX job search, from battling negative thoughts to maintaining motivation. With a focus on community support and structured routines, this episode provides practical strategies for keeping yourself accountable and confident. Whether you’re in UX, product design, or any related field, this conversation offers actionable advice to help you optimize your job search and land that next role. Tune in to learn how combining targeted strategies with the right mindset can lead to success, even in challenging times.
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- Learn how to advance your UX career in our UX Career Roadmap
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Discussion Questions About The Episode
- Reflecting on Leon's experience, how do you think creating a Career Roadmap before updating your resume or LinkedIn could impact your UX job search? Have you ever tried something similar, and what were the results?
- Erin mentioned the importance of mindset and community in the UX job search process. How has community support played a role in your career progression, and what strategies do you use to maintain a positive mindset during challenging times?
- When Leon talks about transitioning back into full-time UI/UX design after being laid off, he mentions the nervousness and the need for reassurance that his skills are still relevant. How do you handle transitions in your career, especially when returning to a role or industry after a break?
- Sarah Doody emphasizes the value of having a "compass statement" as a north star in your career. What elements do you consider essential for forming your own compass statement, and how can it influence your career decisions?
- Leon discusses his strategic shift from using a broad "spray and pray" approach to a more deliberate and focused job application process. How can you apply a more targeted approach to your job search or career advancement, and what criteria would you use to identify the right opportunities for yourself?
Episode Notes & Links
Episode Transcript
Sarah Doody [00:00:00]: When you combine that very tactical element with this very art element, let’s say, I think that’s really what helps people move more quickly and more more quickly and more efficiently in their job search because you’re not getting stuck, like, in a quicksand of all this negative thinking and stuff that’s swirling around in your heads.
Sarah Doody [00:00:23]: 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.
Erin Lindstrom [00:01:01]: 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 1 is awesome, and number 2 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 Lindstrom [00:01:33]: You can send Sarah a LinkedIn message, or you can email hello at sarahdudy.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 [00:01:45]: Alright. I’ve been told you cannot hear the chickens in the background, but I’m currently in Hawaii, and the chickens decided to come and announce themselves. So what’s your kind of where you are today and what you were doing before situation?
Leon Barnard [00:02:01]: I was, laid off in March for a job where I worked for 11 years. I’ve been out of the mark job market for quite a while. My background is as a UX designer, but my last job, I kind of transitioned into being, I guess, a kind of a UX expert or UX educator writing more about UX, doing some documentation, things like that, and less of a hands on UI UX designer. And so I was a little bit of a switcher also. And and when I started CSL, I kind of had a few different UX related paths that I was interested in, and I ended up going back into, you know, full time UI UX design or also for for a government contractor, EDIT, working on a very large project to modernize, software that’s used by the federal courts system, which is it’s amazing. It’s about 25 years old. It’s really in in need of it, so it’s it’s kinda fun. But, yeah, it was I was a little bit nervous getting back into the field of UI, UX design, but, happy to be reemployed and, happy to know that my skills are are still there and coming back.
Sarah Doody [00:03:10]: One of the first things we do is have you go through creating the career road map. So, essentially, a product road map ish for your career. And I’m curious if you wanna share how that process of creating that career road map, essentially, a miniature user research project on yourself, where you are asking yourself questions, you’re asking other people questions, you’re gathering lots of qualitative information to then really guide you through that process of creating a resume, creating your LinkedIn, etcetera, etcetera. And in a perfect world, I would not let anyone touch their resume or LinkedIn or anything until they finish this roadmap, because it’s such an important step in clarifying your vision. It’s like, if we try to create a product without a product road map, you know, incoming disaster. Right? And same thing applies to this. So I’m curious, you know, reflecting back, how did that step of creating your career road map influence you as a person, as a professional, and also really how you approached the resume, the LinkedIn, the networking, the portfolio, etcetera?
Leon Barnard [00:04:27]: My story kind of, is kind of related. For me, I think that that early, portion was what I was really craving and looking for most, almost more than anything else. Because, like I said, I’d worked, you know, one job for, you know, over a decade. I had some severance. I knew I wasn’t really in a hurry, and I really felt like I was kind of at this crossroads. And I wanted a program that was gonna, kind of put that front and center rather than just focusing on optimizing your resume or or that sort of thing. So I think that was my favorite part, just the way it got you thinking about things. And I really had a lot of fun with that, and it was, yeah, like I said, what I was really craving at that time because the layout came as a bit of a surprise.
Leon Barnard [00:05:08]: And I I knew that I could go in a bunch of directions, but I didn’t. I really had no idea. I had done no reflection, and so that was really a perfect opportunity for me to get started. And I wouldn’t have been ready to do any of the other steps if I hadn’t spent, a lot of time doing that first.
Sarah Doody [00:05:25]: Yeah. I I think it’s so easy to just jump into rush mode, and I need to update my resume. I need to go to coffee meetups. I need to go to in person online meetups. I need to update my portfolio, all of the things, but you kind of end up just running around like a, no pun intended, like a chicken with its head cut off as we were talking about the chickens here in Hawaii. But with the compass statement, it helps serve as, like, that north star so that when it is time to decide what bullet points do I put on my resume, what projects do I put in my portfolio, what could I highlight in a cover letter, or which jobs should I even apply to or entertain, it makes all of those decisions so much easier because you have this kind of filter to run all those decisions through. You know, there’s that hashtag or movement, like build in public. Right? And I think in the job search and in advancing our careers, oftentimes, that is not a very public thing.
Sarah Doody [00:06:35]: Right? A lot of people kind of stay in a in a silo when it comes to their resume, and their LinkedIn, and job search, and and all that. And what we keep hearing over and over is the ability to no longer do this all in a silo on your own and have a community, I think, helps so much with accountability, first of all, right, but also the confidence level setting, if you will, and that you realize, hey. This isn’t just me. I’m not the only person that struggles with x y z. No matter how many years of experience, no matter what amazing company names you have on your resume, Everyone struggles with this stuff because it’s not something we have to do every day. And, yeah, it is it can be intimidating. But when you step out of that silo and do it kind of in community, I think there’s such empowerment with that. And I’m curious, like, if you have anything else around the idea of, like, the community and how it maybe impacted you, whether it’s accountability or who knows what.
Leon Barnard [00:07:46]: I really felt, what you said about not feeling alone, and I think that was one of the things that really helped me. I actually wish that I had taken more advantage of that. I attended a few of the mindset calls, and they were really, really helpful. But in retrospect, I wish I had, you know, joined every week, and done more to, like, push myself up more outside of my comfort zone and do more out in the open and kind of share more things in progress. I think that did limit me a little bit. So I I kind of regret that I didn’t take more advantage of that. But still, overall, I was glad to feel that I was part of a group of people who weren’t there to judge me and, you know, and just that we were kind of all going through this together. But those kind of softer areas like the mindset calls, I I really wish that I’d taken more advantage of those.
Sarah Doody [00:08:33]: Yeah. The mindset calls are so popular and for all the reasons you’ve just described. Right? Like, sure. It’s very helpful for someone to tell you, what if you replace this word on your resume with this word or, you know, tactical stuff like that? But it’s equally helpful to have a place where you can tackle topics like confidence, mindset, time management, productivity management, feelings of inadequacy because your previous company or boss, you know, didn’t value you and stuff like that. And when you combine that very tactical element with this very art element, let’s say, I think that’s really what helps people move more quickly and more efficiently in their job search because you’re not getting stuck, like, in a quicksand of all this negative thinking and stuff that’s swirling around in your heads. But one thing I wanna touch on is the more tactical stuff. I’m curious. You know, we talked about the the career road map.
Sarah Doody [00:09:41]: I would love to shift more into things like resume, portfolio, etcetera. And, Leon, I remember you had said that you felt like your resume was what ended up getting you the interview, and your portfolio really helped you kinda land the offer. And I’m curious, you know, how do you feel or what was kinda key differences between the before version of your resume or portfolio versus what you used when you applied for your jobs?
Leon Barnard [00:10:18]: Well, one thing that I definitely did right was, not think that I could produce a good resume on my own. So I didn’t, I don’t think I applied anywhere before I started CSL. I knew that my resume needed a total overhaul. The resume template that you created was incredibly helpful just for getting over that barrier of what’s a good format for this, just kinda following that to a tee and just, replacing the the text and really having thought hard about what those key bullet points are and how to phrase them in terms of, you know, accomplishments and as much, you know, measurable stuff as possible. You know? And I, in the beginning, I, you know, was sending that out and I was getting some responses, and then I was thinking, oh, you know, it’s because my resume doesn’t have all the keywords. And so I actually, like, signed out for some of those services that, you know, will do do your resume score or kind of help you get all the right keywords and everything like that. And then I realized that I wasn’t having any more success with that. And so I kind of really gotten in this mindset of trying to hack the ATS, and then eventually, I came back to, where I started in CSL, which is that it’s it’s not about that.
Leon Barnard [00:11:25]: It’s about it you know, eventually, more or less, people are reading your resume, and it really is about fit, and I got a lot more careful and deliberate about where I applied. For a while, I was kind of, using that, you know, spray and pray or whatever approach, and I was not having any luck with it. And so I think, ultimately, it was just getting having a resume that I felt really represented me and just having the patience and persistence. And, yeah, what I found is that every interview I did get, I was a really good fit for with the exception of 1. And and that’s because I think there’s a lot of recruiters out there that really don’t know what to look for, and so that’s something that we don’t have a lot of control over. But one out of the, you know, 8 or 10 or so interviews I had was, a bad fit, but all of the other ones were really good by just looking at my resume compared to the the job. And, you know, I think I was really close in in a lot of those cases. And so because of that, when I got those interviews and I got to that portfolio round, I felt confident that the portfolio was going to represent, you know, something that was going to resonate with them.
Leon Barnard [00:12:34]: And so thinking of the portfolio in a different way, you know, the CSL way was really helpful. So I actually ended up only doing one case study because that was really where I had the most material, and I felt like it was it really spoke to my my skill set, and that was a really good way to, you know, match myself to the job. And and I and now that I’ve started this job that I got through using that resume and portfolio, it’s it really is, like, you know, a a huge overlap with, what I demonstrated in my portfolio. So I think it really is just about, you know, having the right package, making sure you’re really prepared when presenting it, and then just being persistent and patient until that right one comes along. And I’m I’m really glad that I was prepared because the worst thing would have been to have not been prepared for the right position. You know, if you get rejected from something that’s not the right position, that’s one thing. But if it’s a job that you should have gotten and you don’t have it together or you don’t have something that’s representative, then that would really be a shame. So I felt really good that my portfolio, especially, was a really good match to the job I ended up getting.
Sarah Doody [00:13:42]: And I just wanna fact check something just so the audience is clear. Your portfolio had one project in
Leon Barnard [00:13:49]: it. Yes.
Sarah Doody [00:13:49]: One prod slash case study. Yeah. And I wanna highlight that because I know if you’re on LinkedIn or social media or medium.com, that’s the age old debate that’s never gonna end, I guess, around, like, these mythical rules that your portfolio has to have 3 to 5 projects. And we say this all the time that actually that is false. You can get hired with a portfolio with just one project in it if you do a really excellent job at explaining what you did, why you did it, how you did it, etcetera. And it’s not just like this cookie cutter checklist style portfolio. So something for everyone to keep in mind because here’s the thing, and it kinda touches on what you mentioned. But if you had taken, in your case, another x number of weeks to have 3 projects in your portfolio because some LinkedIn article said that, you may not be in the job you’re in right now because you would have been too busy finishing out those other 2 projects instead of applying.
Sarah Doody [00:14:55]: Right? So I think it’s very, very important to to remind people of that because people get hired with one project all the time, and here’s proof.
Leon Barnard [00:15:04]: Yeah. And, actually, just to add to that, I looked at the analytics. I put that one portfolio project on my website. And so for a while, I was thinking, oh, it must be because I don’t have enough portfolio projects on my website that I’m not getting more hits. And, you know, I was in the process of, you know, trying to make another one that might help. But I was looking at my analytics, and I was getting very few hits from the places I was applying. Most of the time that the, companies were making a decision, it was based on my resume. So most, you know, 90% of the places I applied did not even look at my portfolio or maybe even higher percentage.
Leon Barnard [00:15:36]: So it I know in the end that it wasn’t the fact that I didn’t have more projects, on my website or my port my portfolio that that kept me from getting a job sooner.
Sarah Doody [00:15:46]: Yeah. It’s like when you have, you know, many, many, many different inputs, it makes it hard to take action because a lot of those inputs can conflict. And if you wanna make progress, one of the ways to do that is to commit to a certain method or approach and just follow that. It’s like I have a friend that’s a physical therapist, and we often discuss the similarities in the work we do. And she says, people come to me, and they’ve been piecing together YouTube videos and Instagram, physical therapist influencers, and blah blah blah, but they’re doing all these exercises that, like, conflict and don’t help because they’re not, like, rooted in the same approach. Leon, do you have anything?
Leon Barnard [00:16:33]: Yeah. I would say for me, what I’ve learned is that or what I came to see is it’s really hard out there right now for people in UX and a lot of industries after the layoffs. And when I started CSL, I knew I needed help, but I didn’t know how hard, it was really gonna be out there. And the timing, I’ve always had really good timing for all my career until now. I kind of got into UX right as the wave was starting, and I never had trouble getting a job in UX, either because I knew people or because I had been in it long enough that I had more experience than the people who were just, you know, getting out of boot camp or something like that. So I my resume was able to, you know, jump to the top of the pile even if it wasn’t perfect, and it’s definitely not the case at all now. So having a program, I mean, it it really is a time where you need all the help that you can get. And some things that I really appreciated was one thing for me in the beginning was just it was such a shock to be laid off, especially not working the first time in such a long time.
Leon Barnard [00:17:34]: And doing CSL, because it was so structured, it felt like work or maybe school or something like that. So it allowed me to still get up in the morning and, you know, have something to do, have something to go to, and, you know, having some routine around my my family and getting the kids to school. It it felt like it still felt like an ordinary day most days, which was really important and really kept me from kind of, like, you know, falling into a in into kind of a a bad place. And so it was really helpful, especially in the beginning when I’m just, you know, wrapping my head around this this idea of of not no longer being employed and being scared and all of that stuff, but having people that I was working with, having assignments, you know, being able to chat with people. So much of it felt like work. And so in a lot of ways, it was kind of a a transition from work to work, you know, and and that it didn’t feel like this kind of just massive hole where I, you know, was totally lost. And the other thing I would say is that, you know, another discovery was that there really aren’t any hacks or or shortcuts. I mean, I know a ton of people in UX that I’ve worked with.
Leon Barnard [00:18:41]: I got, like, probably about a a 10 references or, you know, referrals for jobs, and I got 0 interviews out of them. Whereas in the past, I figured that would at least get me, you know, several interviews. And so it’s really just the new landscape out there, you know, and I did several things to try to optimize my resume for, you know, the ATS and whatever and keywords, and that didn’t work either. So, really, it’s about having a good path to follow that’s that’s proven and making your work quality. And, you know, that’s really what’s gonna make you stand out, and you really need a good structured program that that’s kind of, you know, basically evidence based and and really backed by a lot of experience because you really need to find a way to really stand out, which is not easy at all right now.
Sarah Doody [00:19:28]: Yeah. And I think what you said about having career strategy lab feel like school is really interesting perspective because I think, you know, there’s probably people who are not working right now who could go your route and treat it like a 9 to 5. And I think there’s also people who maybe are in a 9 to 5, and if they’re wondering, like, oh my gosh. How do I make it work for me? Rest assured, we definitely have people who’ve been through career strategy lab who were currently employed and didn’t grind at 9 to 5 like a job. We’ve kinda created different tracks, if you will, or suggested tracks depending on the time you have available to put into this. Alright. I think that’s all we have time for. So I wanna first say thank you, Leon, for graciously giving their time and answering tons of questions.
Sarah Doody [00:20:23]: So that’s it. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and we will talk to you soon.
Sarah Doody [00:20:28]: Thanks for listening to the Career Strategy podcast. Make sure to follow me, Sarah Dutti, 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.