How Jane Got Hired As A Principal Product Researcher After Emigrating To The USA With No Professional Network

Sarah Doody [00:00:00]: We call it a road map for your career because many of you have probably worked on products that didn’t have a road map or that did and people didn’t pay attention to it. And when that happens, like, you just build features and it’s kind of assembly line, and then everyone wakes up one day and they’re like, this doesn’t make sense. 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 career strategy lab, open house slash QA about career strategy lab, open house slash QA about the UX job search.

Sarah Doody [00:01:13]: 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 Jane. 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. And that’s what we’re gonna do.

Sarah Doody [00:02:34]: So let’s do that.

Jane Huang [00:02:36]: Well, thank you, everyone. It’s a great honor to be in this open house. I’m Jane. I’m originally from China. I spent eight years in China doing user research split between, strategy consulting and in house research for a big tech company there as well as Sephora in China. I moved to US last September 2024, and I began joining the program in mid October. And I got the offer from Whole Foods in early January. So, basically, only two point half months after I joined the program.

Jane Huang [00:03:13]: I will be their principal UX researcher for their enterprise product team based in Austin. I’m currently in Houston, so I will be relocating very soon. This journey has been very wild because I never had any work experience in US or any overseas countries outside of China before. Never really gone through The US job search job search process before. I didn’t have any connection in The US as well. And Whole Foods was the first company that responded to my application. So and it went all the way, so it was very wild. And I actually applied to their senior user researcher role at first.

Jane Huang [00:03:52]: But halfway through the interview, they decided that I seem like a better fit for a higher level position. So it was, super wild and surprising, and I cannot get it without joining the program. So, yeah, I’m happy I will be happy to share a lot of their learnings today.

Sarah Doody [00:04:09]: Yeah. I know everyone is excited to hear it, and I remember reading your community posts, and it was just so exciting to hear that part of this story. Not only you moving here not having any experience outside of China and not really having connections here, but then applying for the job and getting hired into a more senior role. It was just, like, amazing to hear. It made me smile so so big.

Jane Huang [00:04:37]: Yeah. Yeah. It is. It is definitely beyond my wildest dreams.

Sarah Doody [00:04:41]: And one of the things I quickly wanna point out is, like, many people here may not think, like, why does Whole Foods needs UX? Like, they need UX, and there’s probably a lot of really interesting stuff that goes on behind the scenes. So for everyone, like, really think of getting outside the box of big tech companies when it comes to your job search. And so maybe we can shift focus a little bit into talking about, like, thinking back to before you joined career strategy lab, what were you struggling with? That could be tactical stuff, like this, this, and this with my resume, or it could be more confidence and mindset stuff. But I’m curious if anything jumps out to you.

Jane Huang [00:05:30]: I mean, the before and after difference is so huge for me. I would say that before joining CSL, my biggest struggles were mindset wise. Like I said before, I came from China, Like, compared to other job seekers here in The US, I only saw disadvantages about myself. I only saw that I had no work experience here. I had no connections here, and I was not a native English speaker, and I had cultural barriers, which could pose a great challenges for me doing qualitative research. And, actually, my friends and colleagues back in China, some of them had more overseas experience than me, and all of them basically were very brutally honest with me. And they said it will not be easy. Like, some said that I should probably consider focusing on quant because that will remove, some of the language and cultural barrier that I would face.

Jane Huang [00:06:28]: And some said I probably should pursue a PhD first because there are so many PhD candidates on this land. Just a lot of different opinions, but all were pretty pessimistic. So I would say that before joining the program, I was suffering from this, scarcity mindset where I could only saw where I lacked, where I would not I was not enough, but I didn’t see any strengths or advantages about myself. So that was a big help of this program. It was through basically every step in the program, beginning from the career road map, defining yourself and the work you wanna do next, and to resume stage where you really sort thought thought through all your previous work and condensed your valuable experience into concise, sharp, powerful bullet points, and to the social networking exercises and to the portfolio stage. Basically, throughout the whole process, I built up my confidence, and I began to gain, like, clarity into who I am, what I am really good at, what could still make me a strong candidate in this job market, etcetera, as well as provide clarity for me regarding where I wanna go next. Because previously, I actually sent out, like, 20 plus applications before I came here, and I received zero response from any of the companies. And I didn’t know what was wrong.

Jane Huang [00:08:00]: But looking back, aside from the career materials, another thing I was doing wrong back then was that I didn’t really have a clear direction about the companies and roles I wanted to apply for. I just, like, as like, almost out of habit, I focused on the big tech, big names, and I didn’t do enough research into the company or roles, etcetera. And I was almost, like, treating it as a one way decision. I almost, like, in my heart was begging. Some of the companies will look at me instead of thinking it as a two way decision where I should be more intentional about what kind of companies and roles I wanted to apply for. So there was a lot of clarity gained on that front as well. I think that’s the biggest change for me, before and after wise. Yeah.

Sarah Doody [00:08:49]: Thank you for sharing that. And something jumped out to me, this topic of scarcity mindset. Yeah. Because I think in maybe you feel this in the community of career strategy lab, but oftentimes that comes up maybe with that not that exact phrase, but that kind of underlying topic, I think. And it kinda goes back to what I said at the beginning where on social media, it can be very easy to start to believe that you’re not good enough or that the job market is bad. And, like, all of these reasons why the the hiring market is stacked against you, essentially. And at the same time, when you surround yourself with other people who are saying, like, no. I’m not going to buy into that.

Sarah Doody [00:09:40]: I am gonna do things differently. Like, that shift in your your mindset and your confidence, like you said, then helps create the stronger resume, the stronger portfolio, the stronger, LinkedIn profile, etcetera. So I I love that topic of scarcity mindset. I think it’s so relevant to probably a lot of a lot of people listening.

Jane Huang [00:10:02]: At that time, I already had, like, a very long and tedious portfolio deck I made, following some advice out there from someone quite famous in the field as well. Like, for each project in the portfolio, I basically went into, like, super super detail from beginning to end, telling the entire story, but without really an arc or without focus and, without highlighting or the learnings or key outcomes, etcetera. And at that time, I was trying to, like, update my portfolio, but I was like, I’m not really sure, like, where to start and how to tweak it to make sure that I wouldn’t have to tweak it again sometime after this. How can I make sure that this will be the right way? And that was how I joined one of your webinars on portfolio and learn about the program. But when I learned about the program, I actually was really attracted by the idea of starting with your career road map and defining your career strategy. Because being a user researcher, I’m an old believer in, like, strategy, top down thinking, like, really gain the whole picture view. I didn’t know very clearly back then that my deeper problem was in mindset. That all that was only revealed after I joined the program, but it turned out to be the most important, thing for me, and I think it would be very valuable for me even in the long term.

Sarah Doody [00:11:25]: Yeah. Thank you. And I I think that career road map is the value of essentially treating your career like a product. And in the same way that the products have product road maps, it can be very valuable to have a quote product road map. We call it a road map for your career because many of you have probably worked on products that didn’t have a road map or that did and people didn’t pay attention to it. And when that happens, like, you just build features and it’s kind of assembly line, and then everyone wakes up one day and they’re like, this doesn’t make sense. Like, what are we doing? Right? And so I think it’s very similar experience to our careers where, in some cases, people apply to ten, twenty, 50, one hundred, two hundred jobs, and then all of a sudden they’re like, wait a second. Something isn’t working.

Sarah Doody [00:12:19]: So, yeah, I think that that road map part is is so so important and and valuable to setting yourself up to be more strategic whenever you do work on your portfolio resume, etcetera.

Jane Huang [00:12:35]: Yeah. Definitely strategic.

Sarah Doody [00:12:38]: That’s why we call it career strategy lab. Alright. I kinda wanna switch gears, sir. 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?

Jane Huang [00:13:18]: Yeah. Yeah. Well, this particular role at Whole Foods is, 100% on-site, five days on-site. You will I will be working on basically tool softwares facing internal employees, which they call team members at their stores, as well as some tools, for suppliers business suppliers. And I think part of my responsibility will also cover, consumers’ shopping experience offline because their online experience, was, it it belongs to another group of researchers under the team, but but they were focused they will be focused on online. Yeah. So that will be my scope of response responsibility, and it deals with a lot it deals a lot with team members working offline in stores as well as consumers in stores, so it requires working on-site five days a week. But to me, it is not a problem because I’m new to America, and I actually think it good for me to have my first job, on-site so I can get hands on experience of working in American company and dealing with people face to face instead of purely remotely.

Jane Huang [00:14:30]: Yeah. And as for the salary question, I did try to negotiate, but the number they gave at first was, like, basically above my family’s expectation, and it was pretty good based on, like, the median salary in Austin, etcetera. So I tried to negotiate, but I also was prepared for the answer that, oh, we couldn’t really go much higher than this. And I was thinking that if they stick with this number, I will still sign. So in the end, they returned to me by saying that this was the most they could offer, and if they go any higher, it would not be really fair to other people in the team. And yeah. And I I said, okay. Then I was still accepting, because that is a job that I really want.

Jane Huang [00:15:20]: Yeah. I actually asked I asked Claude by Anthropic for advice a lot during the interview phase regarding what kind of questions they may pose in the next round and how can I go around that? So I definitely, should thank Claude for that as well. It gave me more confidence going into this negotiation thing. I never did it before. Yeah. So I tried.

Sarah Doody [00:15:42]: Thanks for sharing that, and I think it’s such a great use case of Claude or ChatGPT or whatever whatever people use. And I I love that you explained your your thought process around the salary. Right? Like, the offer was more than you you were happy with the original offer, but you still not tried to negotiate. And in the end, it all worked out. And if I’m not mistaken, the salary for the new role is higher than what you were making before, so it it worked out pretty well even without the them saying yes to a negotiation.

Jane Huang [00:16:17]: Yeah. Yes. That was already a higher level position than the one I applied to. So, yeah, it was already, very, very, very, very good in my mind.

Sarah Doody [00:16:27]: That’s amazing. And, Jane, do you have any parting words or advice for people who might be thinking about joining Career Strategy Lab or in the middle of their job search or interviews, maybe even this week. Who knows?

Jane Huang [00:16:42]: Yeah. Definitely. Like, I don’t think I can put a number value to the program. I actually think it’s priceless, because before I joined the program, when I looked at the syllabus, the module design, I actually already got an intuitive feeling that even if I would not be able to get a job when I was in the program, I would still not regret it because I could see that the exercises would provide long term value for me. I could see that it could lay a foundation for me regarding how to think about jobs or regarding how to, like, think about my past experiences and how to tell a story about myself. I could already feel that before I joined, and it was completely true now that I’m through it. So I definitely think this is a very good long term investment in yourself. Yeah.

Jane Huang [00:17:38]: And the human touch, it’s so valuable. Not only that we could get we were basically in a community where everybody had been where you were. So whenever I post a question, somebody would say, I’ve been there, and this is how I approach it. And then there will be coaches sharing their expertise. So this is some a very safe place for you to share whatever struggle or questions you are facing, and you will sure to get an answer satisfactory enough for you. And I especially love the authoritative feedback, the detailed feedback that coach provided for me on every material I submitted. It was so on time. It was always a video explaining not only where they think I could do better, but also why.

Jane Huang [00:18:29]: I think that was super valuable for me as well. One thing I’d like to add for people who are still on the fence is that I think the greatest value of this program is that it removes second guessing for me. After I joined, I still put in a lot of work. I treated it as a full time job for me. I basically was on it, like, from nine to five, sometimes nine to six, sometimes some overtime as well. And, actually, before this call, I asked my husband what word would he use to describe my mental states back then, and he said I was maniacal. Like, I was doing things like a maniac. So this wouldn’t, like, reduce your efforts into it.

Jane Huang [00:19:13]: You would still need to put in tons of work, but what you can be assured of is that you will not work in a futile way anymore. Everything you work on will get you closer to the ideal product that you want to produce, and you can feel very confident that the thing you’re gonna put out will be quality. Yeah. So I I guess I wanna say that it will be much easier to tweak tactically than strategically, and this program already lays out the strategic pieces for you. So you can feel very confident just following its guidance. Yeah.

Sarah Doody [00:19:48]: Thank you so much for sharing that, Jane. I think it helped so many people who might might be on the fence, and I think you probably answered a lot of questions that people have concerning time commitment and things like that. And I would also say some people treat career strategy like a full time job. Other people are doing it a couple of nights a week or on the weekend, etcetera. So it really just depends on you and your unique situation. But, yeah, if if people are not working right now, then many of them just treat it like a full time job and creates this structure in their life to get a lot of this done much more quickly than they would have on their own. So, alright, that wraps up this open house where I’m going to let Jane go back to whatever you’re doing for the rest of the day. I know everyone really appreciates you taking the time to share your stories.

Sarah Doody [00:20:42]: So thank you so much. Thank you all for joining us since it’s hopefully helpful for your job search. And if you also are considering joining Career Strategy Lab, now you know some real humans who’ve been a part of it. So that’s all. Thanks for coming. Bye, everyone. Thanks for listening to the Career Strategy podcast. Make sure to follow me, Sarah Doody, on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

Sarah Doody [00:21:13]: 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.