How This Senior UX Designer Got Hired After Losing Her Mojo & Confidence

Intro: [00:00:00] Hey, I’m Sarah Doody a user researcher and product designer with 20 years of experience. In 2017, I noticed something a little ironic. UX and product people, despite being great at designing experiences for other people, often struggle to design their own careers. That’s why I created Career Strategy Lab and this podcast to help you navigate your UX job search, grow in your current role, and avoid skill and salary plateaus all in a chill and BS free way.

So whether you’re. Stuck in your job search or wondering what’s next in your UX career. You are in the right place.

Episode Intro: 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 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 [00:01:00] 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@sarahdoody.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 Doody: we are really excited for you to be with us today. I’m Sarah Doody in case we haven’t met yet. I’ll share more about, uh, myself later. Essentially I’ve been working user experience for 22 years, and in 2017 I kind of, unexpectedly, uh, came into this world of UX career coaching, which some of you know me from.

And so today we’re really excited to do a q and a with, people who have gone through my UX career coaching and, and job search program. So really two purposes. Number one, so you can hear from [00:02:00] real people in terms of. What is working right now you know, in the past year or so, uh, regarding the job search, et cetera.

And also give you some practical tips for maybe your job search right now. And also help you better understand what I do inside my UX career coaching program in case you are thinking of joining it. So that’s our little. Outline for today, if you will.

Allie Intro

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Sarah Doody: tell us a little bit more about who you are, what you do in UX and kind of your journey into career strategy lab.

Allie Serd: yeah. Yeah. I’m Allie. I’ve been in the field for about a decade now. I originally got a new UX because I wanted to code MySpace pages, uh, but I decided that coding wasn’t for me, so I switched to ux. I currently work at PepsiCo right now. I’ve been there for a year and a half. I actually started Pepsi Code towards the tail end of my CSL experience.

Yeah, that’s it. [00:03:00] And what were

Sarah Doody: you doing

Allie Serd: before Pepsi,

Sarah Doody: outta curiosity? Oh, yes.

Allie Serd: Yeah, so I was actually working at Walgreens before this, so I worked on the mobile app for Walgreens. Yep.

Sarah Doody: And remind me, were you were, did you leave Walgreens on your own or was there a layoff of some sort?

Allie Serd: I left Walgreens on my own because they had seven rounds of layoffs, and so it was gonna come sooner rather than later.

Sarah Doody: So it was kinda that proactive approach.

Allie Serd: Yeah. I actually followed you on YouTube years before my CSL days. So I really like, I think I followed your approach. I think I had to do a resume a while back and had to redo my portfolio. And I think I did it after putting it off for years.

I did it in over a weekend. Amazing just watching YouTube, uh, watching new YouTube videos. So.

Sarah Doody: Well, it’s good to hear my YouTube still as viewers sometimes. It’s hard to know, but I guess I’ll keep making videos.

Sarah Q1

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Sarah Doody: [00:04:00] Um, alright, so I am really curious to kind of kick off our conversation around you know, confidence comes up so much not just in our careers, but also our job search, whether it’s confidence in your portfolio, in your resume, and your ability to succeed in interviews and et cetera.

Allie A1

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Sarah Doody: I know you’re, you started career Strategy Lab a while ago, but thinking back to, to where you were I know you were already employed and you kinda left Walgreens voluntarily, but where was your kind of confidence at concerning your, your readiness to apply and, or, you know, you’re, you’re.

Confidence in general for your job search?

Allie Serd: Yeah, for sure. I liked the title that I lost my mojo during the Walgreens days, so, I came to CSL, just, you know, having not a lot of whole confidence in myself, especially after being in [00:05:00] the field for a decade. I think one of the things that like really helped me was obviously giving myself grace.

Was a big win. And I think that I also like self advocated. I think at one point I was here for a month and then I like stepped away, uh, just for a month so I could go through all the holidays and stuff. But I think that like the inventory of things is really what helped me. Like I knew that I had an interesting story to tell.

I think it’s just a matter of like, I forget that I’ve been in the field for 10 years

Sarah Doody: and I

Allie Serd: forget like what that really measures up to, like, you know, now. And I think taking inventory of like all my projects that I’ve done and also reaching out to like past mentors and getting their viewpoint on, you know.

I, what kind of characteristics they were looking for me at that time. So I think follow, I definitely learned a lesson or two. I had to follow the path. I think I tried to jump on module or two, [00:06:00] I think, because I was like looking for a job. Like, real quick, the, the position had just been posted. And then I realized, oh wait, I gotta take a step back.

Let’s start from the beginning. And like Ellen had said, you fill out all that content and then you learn to like, tell your story and figure out where the like highs and lows are of like the storytelling aspect. But yeah, mojo was low. What better at CSO?

Sarah Doody: For sure, I’ll take it. But in all, in all seriousness, like the reason that I designed Career Strategy Lab to start with that first step of, you know, we call it the career roadmap and the Compass statement, but it’s kind of a, a research project on yourself and taking stock of what you’ve done. Bringing in external feedback from former colleagues, managers, et cetera. And similar to what, what we’ve already heard, it helps to identify [00:07:00] blind spots of things that maybe are so natural to you that you didn’t even realize are a superpower and, or give you more confidence in things that you were doubting.

And when you are able to identify those things, it really makes the process of then. Knocking out your resume, your portfolio, your LinkedIn, all those things a lot, a lot faster because you’re not kind of like wallowing on this or wallowing is maybe the wrong word, but like you’re not on this hamster wheel of second guessing all your skills and experience.

Sarah Q2

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Sarah Doody: okay, so we’ve heard a little bit about like where, where you were before you joined Career Strategy Lab and kind of what the first little bit amount of, little bit of time in career strategy Lab was like, and how it helped kind of set you on the right course to be able to go into the making of your resume portfolio, et cetera.

But I’m curious [00:08:00] concerning. Any mindset shifts, and I use mindset a little bit usefully. It could be like myths you had about the job search or yourself, or the hiring process. in the spirit of these mindset or life shifts that you feel like maybe happened as a result of Career Strategy Lab, does anything come to mind for you?

Allie Serd: Yeah, I think I first, I think when I started CSLI, I was not oblivious to how much work it was gonna be, but I think I was like, oh, this is a lot of work.

And I, so like, I like have made the decision to step away for like a month and things like come back and it gave me wonders, you know? So like, I think the mindset shift, like it was definitely for me, like trying to figure out how do I get my like mojo back really? And just like figure out like. Trying to work on that elevator, el elevator pitch, like Steven was talking about with the like compass statement.

And I, I think another mindset shift for me, and, [00:09:00] and you say this all the time, everywhere else, it’s like this is a whole project in itself. Like it’s a sprint, it’s a process in itself. Follow the process and you are, you’re gonna be good to go because it sets the foundation that you need to get started.

And then the accountability is there for CSL as well. I think for me, just inventory in all of my work was a big booster in my opinion. I also loved the 360 feedback. I actually, I tend to think that I like shied away a little bit in CSLI was actually, you know, quiet, but I was like outgoing in front of like camera and so like, I watched so many critique videos.

It’s not even funny. Like I just was like. Um, Because it was so, it was so interesting to see other people’s work because when you watch other people present and you watch their work and you see how they structured it, it really just gave me that inspiration and bounced [00:10:00] off of like, things that I could do that like, makes my story interesting or a headline that like, is more interesting than this headline.

So I think that like, having it as a project within itself and changing that mindset to say, man, I’m gonna have to do some digging. Like I’m gonna have to do some work on this. And I think that, and once I switched to that mindset, I was like, I got this. This is gonna be good.

Sarah Doody: Well, I, I love to hear that you were sitting there with popcorn watching critiques and things, and if anyone’s wondering, like, we do these critiques inside Career Strategy Lab where you can submit your resume or your portfolio or something, and then myself and other members of the team, we record a video of us going through it and send it back to you.

And the cool thing is the c the critiques, you can watch each other’s critiques for the exact reason Allie just said, because it can be so valuable to see, you know, someone else’s resume or [00:11:00] someone else’s portfolio. And maybe just seeing theirs makes you realize, okay, I’m on the right track, or, oh no, I’m not on the right track based on that feedback.

You know, Becca gave Steven or something like that. So that’s what Ally’s talking about when it comes to the, the critiques. But I’m curious, Sally. You said the 360 activity was really impactful. Do you remember anything, any feedback you received that jumped out to you or helped you as you moved through CSL in terms of skills or strengths or superpowers that, you know, people that had previously worked with you, et cetera?

Said, said you have, I

Allie Serd: learned that I’m very resilient and I deal with ambiguity very well, which is a must to have in the field of UX because every day is an adventure and you don’t know what’s gonna happen. So I think that that was what it was like for me. I [00:12:00] think one of the specific feedbacks that I remember when I presented was I think he was like, you loved my images, which I’m not a visual person at all.

Like, I’m more of like a deck, like put the text there and like, and I think one of the most like. Important critiques was like you really like your visuals were a nice balance with like the text because it allowed the text to speak for itself and the visuals spoke for it as well. And so I think just finding that balance.

I think one of the pictures was like our, our washing machine. I don’t know if you remember the washing machine. So we actually like built a fake cardboard washing machine to do user testing on this washing machine of this project that we did. So I just remember like I am excited when I present that project and when I got other people excited, that’s when I was like, story resonates.

Right.

Sarah Doody: No, I remember the cardboard washing machine with the iPad, like duct tape to it or something. [00:13:00] That was so cool. No, it’s such a cool example of like telling this story of this like very interesting but somewhat obscure, you know, UX project you worked on and you were able to lean into parts of that story that made me like literally on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happened.

Like to think you guys were duct taping together, a fake washing machine, it just, you had me hook, line and sinker. So I’m sure that that will be valuable in future scenarios that where you might present your portfolio. okay, so my, I think my final question, but we might squeeze in one more. I am curious to hear like if you could only pinpoint one thing about career strategy Lab that you haven’t spoken about already in terms of how it helped you navigate your job search, navigate consulting, or, you know, thinking about [00:14:00] something you learned that you feel like is gonna be applicable even in your, you know, day-to-day job or frankly life for years to come, what comes to mind that, that you haven’t mentioned yet?

Allie A3

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Allie Serd: we touched on so many things. I think that for me, like the. And I didn’t like do this too much in CSO, but I think the accountability piece was super important for me, especially as like you went and completed your sprint and you like, Hey, you need to submit this so you can get feedback. So I think like having that dialogue of like, Hey, you need to do this and this and this, and having the template that Ellen had mentioned was super helpful as well, because again, once you have that foundation, then you can only go up from there.

I’m trying to think of where others, I think, like for me, the boat, the Post-It thing, like give yourself some grace. I’m, it’s a, you gotta, I think like when I’m joined CSOI was. Not in a great head space. And I think I left for a month and then came back and I was in a much better head space. [00:15:00] And I think that like the fact that you guys were like even willing to like work with me while I was like going through this like experience, I think even coming back was just like, great coming back to the community after only being gone for a month there.

But it was like, Ali, where are you? I was like, oh, thanks.

Sarah Doody: That’s great to hear.

Sarah Q4

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Sarah Doody: Um, okay, final last question, but the answer can only be one sentence or even like five words. So a little challenge here, but what would be your best tip for someone if they’re deciding to go through career strategy lab or if they like joined today?

So you can answer either question,

Allie A4

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Sarah Doody: Allie, what’s your post-it note? My, oh, the one besides the one I already showed? Yeah.

We’re just collecting post-it notes at this point. No.

Allie Serd: Oh

Sarah Doody: man.

Allie Serd: I the give yourself Grace one is such a big one for me.

Sarah Doody: I like that. Yeah, you said that at the beginning and I think that is your [00:16:00] theme for today. Bet on yourself. Give yourself grace. Think about it like a business and. Think of it as not just something you’re doing right now, but this whole entire career operating system,

Conclusion

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Sarah Doody: Well, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate your time and your thoughtfulness and just your, your honesty here.

So thank you for coming and I hope that you feel more confident, more calm, more clarity about your situation or the job search

I know. We’re not gonna sugarcoat that it’s easy, but at the same time we do these to shed light on stories of people getting hired to hopefully turn down the volume of some of the doom and gloom you experience on LinkedIn and elsewhere. So thank you for coming, and we’ll talk to you later. We’ll see you somewhere on the internet

all right. Bye.

Outro: [00:17:00] Thanks so much for listening to the Career Strategy Podcast. Now make sure to follow so you don’t miss an episode, and you can check out all of our episodes at careerstrategylab.com/podcasts now to learn more about how to apply UX and product strategy to advancing your career. Whether that means leveling up in your current role, getting a new role, getting freelance work, or just being ready for the unexpected, then I invite you to watch my free UX job search workshop at careerstrategylab.com/hired And please feel free to send me a DM on LinkedIn. I would love to hear from you.

Post Roll: Hey there. Before I go, I wanna speak to you specifically if you’ve applied to 50, 100, 200 or more jobs and you haven’t secured an offer or interviews yet. First of all, I want you to know it’s not your fault. It is challenging out there and [00:18:00] learning how to navigate the job, search, interviews, negotiation, et cetera.

It is not something that we are taught. Your boss is too busy to help you. Your friends just give you vague advice. Your family doesn’t really know how hiring in UX works. This is why I created my career strategy lab, UX job search accelerator. If you are tired of your DIY approach. Not leading to the results you want, then I challenge you to consider.

Maybe it is time for a pivot, just like products pivot. Maybe your job search needs a pivot too. So head over to career strategy lab.com/apply to learn more or have a call with someone on my team or myself so we can answer all of your questions. Hope to talk to you soon.