How Marcus Got Hired as a UX Researcher After Six Months of Rejection

Sarah: [00:00:00] getting a referral is not just about going on LinkedIn and typing in the company name and sending a DM to someone and asking them for a referral link.

Like when people refer you, they’re putting their reputation on the line, right? And so you need to have like some semblance of relationship.

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 of the coaches inside of Career Strategy [00:01:00] 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 Marcus , 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 what were they doing earlier in [00:02:00] 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.

Marcus 1

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Sarah: we’re marcus, let’s hear a little bit about. Who you are, what, what you are doing. And, Marcus got hired very recently , so I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna give it away, but Marcus, the mic is yours.

Marcus Ma: Thanks Sarah. Hey everyone. My name’s Marcus Pronoun. He, him, his based in Seattle, Washington.

I am a designer researcher at Nava, which is a consultancy and public benefit corporation. So I’m working with the government, I know a wild time to be working with the [00:03:00] government. We work on federal and state projects. I’m currently assigned on a federal project with the Department of Justice. And so one of my projects is helping to improve the T visa application process for people who have been human trafficked.

So really impactful work that I’m doing there with Nava. Before Nava, yeah, I was like unemployed for a year. I was working at eBay as 2024. They laid me off. The first six months I was like, like, enjoying life. Like having fun. But I was like casually applying here and there, but I was like not getting any hits.

I’m like, okay, what’s going on? ’cause like, this worked like a couple years ago. Like I was getting interviews, like with the, with the strategy I had before. I was like, oh, okay, something’s not working here. And so. Six months in, I was like, okay, I need to join, I need to change up my strategy. Like what else can I do?

Like, I remember joining Sarah’s like, one-off workshop. Like, oh, I think I was really intrigued by it. Like I was clearly considering, okay, I think I need to join the CSL program ’cause I need to shift my strategy and like commit my time. It’s like it was [00:04:00] already August, like my severance was up, my unemployment was up, I gotta like lock in and find a job really fast.

And then luckily within CSL there was someone who had just joined but then got a job at Nava. And I had posted that I was also doing a volunteer project with United States Digital Response. So kind of like volunteer civic tech work. And that person, that alum, that now alumni was like, Hey, I’m interested in that volunteer work you’re doing.

Can you let me know how that goes? I was like, sure. Like, I’ll let you know if that So fast forward, I. I think about like November 20, 24. I, I reached back out with her. It’s like, Hey, I love I, I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you about my experience. I, we connected and after that conversation, she’s like, Hey, I really enjoyed our talk.

If there’s ever an open position at Nava, I’d love to recommend you. And so a couple weeks passed by and a position opened up. I reached back out. I, she said, yeah, I’ll, I’ll refer you. And so I went through the whole referral application process and that’s where I’m at [00:05:00] now.

Sarah: And that was not too long ago, correct me if I’m wrong, was like you got hired in the past three months or so?

Marcus Ma: Yeah, I just started in March. I got the offer in February. Oh. And I got done with CSL in December.

Sarah: And I think one thing I would highlight with Marcus’s experience is like the power of relationships with people that you. Kind of actually no, you know, it’s getting a referral is not just about going on LinkedIn and typing in the company name and sending a DM to someone and asking them for a referral link.

Like when people refer you, they’re putting their reputation on the line, right? And so you need to have like some semblance of relationship. And that is part of what Marcus you got from CSL was this great serendipitous relationship with this other person who was already there. And that led to, you know, you getting hired and now with an alumni base of, [00:06:00] I wanna say close to 600 people, I’m not gonna distract myself and go look it up, but I think we’re close to six, maybe a little more.

Like that’s a lot of people working, a lot of very interesting companies that, you know, could be leveraged in. Your j job search in the future, or who knows? But power relationships is so, so important.

Marcus Ma: Oh. Yeah. I also wanted to mention as well, like the whole like portfolio was a big game changer in terms of my interviewing skills.

Like, it gave me the confidence to talk about the value of myself as I was going through my interviews with these other people. And so like knowing that what my portfolio was like last year was not telling a story at all. It was very much like I created this deliverable, then I created that deliverable and this deliverable, it wasn’t really telling a story.

But with the CSL like foundations and teachings, it’s like giving me a foundation even when I’m going forward with my new work. Like I have something I can base off now when I’m working on my new projects as well.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Marcus Ma: Not as daunting as, as it is anymore.

Sarah: Well, and one thing I [00:07:00] would add too is that, you know.

Even though you just got hired, fast forward to whenever your next job search might be. Just hypothetically, you now have the tools and the knowledge to make it less daunting in the future. Right. Because now you know better, essentially.

Marcus Ma: Exactly.

Sarah: All right. I would love to talk about, you know, confidence, because confidence comes up quite, quite often as, as we’ve already heard, and one misconception we see with, confidence is that people kind of don’t realize that confidence doesn’t just come to you in your sleep or like, you know, come out of the sky.

Like lightning confidence really comes from taking action.

General Question

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Sarah: And as you’ve kind of heard, marcus became more confident with that portfolio. so I want to hone in on how you feel your confidence [00:08:00] changed, you know, compared to when you were first starting out with CSL and if there were any other parts of it that you really think contributed to that confidence.

And then kind of point B to that question is how did that translate to your interviews and, or like even the position you’re in now

Marcus 2

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Sarah: Marcus, what do you have to say on this topic of kind of confidence shifts and, and mindset shifts, especially when you think, you know, beyond the portfolio as we kind of already talked about?

Marcus Ma: Yeah. I think for me, yeah, I was definitely lacking confidence, like coming into like almost like six months, like no jobs 2024.

Then like what really stood out to me during CSL was the mindset calls we’d had every week. So all on Wednesdays we’d have calls with everyone in the cohort coming together just like. Then just like, just be real about how we’re going through the job application process. There’s no like, hey, like what I’m feeling by myself.

Like other people [00:09:00] are feeling that as well. So it’s not as lonely and there’s an opportunity just to hear each other out space to just like listen and also give feedback or how do we can approach different tactics. And so it was great to hear like you weren’t alone in what you were going through. And that was a really, it helped shift my mindset a lot into showing like, Hey, I’m not the only one going through this, or there are other tactics we can approach to solve this.

And so it’s good to hear that you’re not alone because like, ’cause job searching is, can be very isolating and then like you just put, put so much energy towards it so it gets really like. You isolate, isolate yourself from people you don’t wanna get, get feedback from other people. But this forces you to do that.

Like, and it creates a safe space for you to do that as well. And so, you know, you’re also getting like feedback from the coaches as well, and from Sarah as well. When, when we submit our items for critique, we get direct objective feedback on how we can improve the resume, our LinkedIn page, the portfolio feedback on our one page compass statement.

And so that’s really important as well. [00:10:00] Because like who do you have to give you this objective feedback within your, your direct circle? Not that many.

General Question 2

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Sarah: All right. The next topic it’s a little self-reflective, but I’m 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

Marcus 3

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Marcus Ma: I think for me, I think the power of, yeah, community and reflection is really important. I wanna be where I’m at now. Without CSL community, without , the USDR community, with other designers I’ve met throughout my time of unemployment, like it, during my time of unemployment, kind of like a silver lining.

Like I had the time, the chance, like to go to different meetups, to interact with [00:11:00] different groups online and in person and like develop those communities. And then with CSL as well, like devoted time to reflect on myself of like who I am, where I want to go, where my strengths lie how to be more confident, how to ask for support.

It really is important to like, reflect because a, a lot of our world’s very much like go, go, go, go, go. What’s next? Move on to the next thing most thing. But when you reflect, you really key in and hone in on like who you are as a person. And when you have that time to flex, to know who you are as a person and you can communicate that into an interview and knowing that you can, you did the best.

You did an interview to communicate who you are. I think that gives you more confidence when you go through interview process.

Sarah: You just went through it, so if anyone would know you would.

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 [00:12:00] say to them? It could be as simple or as not simple as you wish.

Marcus 4

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Marcus Ma: Yeah, I think, yeah, building that, like trust the process.

From beginning to end. I think also as well lean into the CSL community, not just the coaches and Sarah, but like the people within the cohorts. Like they have such a wealth of knowledge and experiences. ’cause you can see Fritz and Joshua, they have like over 20 years experience of like design work.

Me, I only have five years experience. So it was good to like get different perspectives on design and people’s feedback. When I was giving out my presentation, when I was asking for support on how things worked or how like my portfolio looked like, that was really beneficial just to get that, those different breadths of experiences.

And I feel like yeah, that’s like the, the program will work as much as what effort you put in. So the more effort you put in, the more that will come out of it. So the more you’re engaged with the CSL community, the more more you’re engaged with doing the process, the [00:13:00] more you’ll get out.

Sarah: Love it. Could not have said it any better myself.

General Conclusion

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Sarah: Alright. I just wanna take a moment to thank Marcus for giving us their time. To share about your experience. I think it’s just so 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. [00:14:00] 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 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.

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