Are you a UX professional struggling to explain who you are or what you want next? You’re not alone. Here’s how to clear the fog and move forward with clarity.

If you’ve been feeling stuck in your UX career, unsure of your strengths, hesitant to apply for jobs, or wondering if you still belong in the industry, then this episode is for you.

Sarah introduces the concept of Career Identity Fog, a feeling of misalignment that can erode your confidence and sabotage your job search.

But there’s good news: You can use UX research and strategy tools on yourself to lift the fog and reposition your career with clarity and conviction.

This is Part 1 of a special 3 part series on diagnosing your UX job search challenges, so make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the other episodes in this series.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ What Career Identity Fog is—and why so many UX professionals are feeling it

✔️ 5 signs you’re stuck in identity fog (and how it’s slowing down your job search)

✔️ A 3-part framework to rediscover who you are and what you want in your UX career

✔️ Why confidence doesn’t come from trends—it comes from clarity

✔️ How one woman got hired by clearly articulating her ideal role on LinkedIn

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction: Overcoming Career Identity Fog

00:31 Understanding Career Identity Fog

01:21 Diagnosing Your UX Job Search

03:40 Symptoms of Identity Fog in Your Career

11:33 Job Search Diagnosis Checklist

17:21 Clearing the Identity Fog: Steps to Take

23:55 Real-Life Success Stories

28:02 Conclusion and Next Steps

29:46 Career Strategy Lab: Your Path to Success

31:25 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

🎬 Watch Sarah's free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in today's UX job market

👉 Join Sarah Doody's Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

After being laid off and earning a Master’s degree in UX, Melp still wasn’t landing UX job interviews. What changed? She stopped applying to everything and started thinking strategically.

In this Q&A from a Career Strategy Lab Open House, Sarah Doody talks with Melp, a UX researcher turned product manager, about the ups and downs of her UX job search journey. Despite years of experience, a Masters degree in UX from the University of Michigan, and hundreds of UX job applications, Melp wasn’t getting traction, until she joined Career Strategy Lab.

You’ll hear how she slowed down to get clear, challenged the narrative that she was “difficult to work with,” and started positioning herself as a strategic asset (not a liability). Her confidence began to rebuild, not because of a new certification, but because she finally saw her work for what it was: valuable.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why Melp chose strategy over hustle in her UX job search

✔️ How the Career Compass Sprint helped her identify what she really wanted

✔️ The mindset shift from “I’m difficult” to “I’m a high-impact team member”

✔️ Why she stopped over-preparing and started owning her story

✔️ How CSL’s “minimum viable portfolio” mindset freed her up to move forward faster

✔️ The difference between traditional career support and CSL’s strategic, in-depth process

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Career Strategy Lab

02:14 Melp's Career Journey and Challenges

03:39 The Importance of Finding the Right Job

05:25 Deep Dive into Career Compass Sprint

07:02 Confidence and Self-Discovery

09:02 The Diva Mindset and Environment Fit

17:02 CSL's Unique Approach and In-Depth Process

22:18 Final Thoughts and Advice for Job Seekers

24:13 Conclusion and Podcast Outro

24:53 Special Message for Job Seekers

🎬 Watch Sarah's free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in today's UX job market

👉 Join Sarah Doody's Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

If you’re in a UX job search and wondering, “Is it just me, or is UX hiring slower than ever?” you’re not imagining it. In this episode, we chat with Heather Cassar, VP of People at Narmie (a fintech startup) who brings 15+ years of experience leading hiring, people strategy, and global team growth at companies like Cash App, Uber, Block, and more. 

Heather brings first hand experience about what's actually happening in UX and Product hiring, on both the startup and enterprise side.

In our conversation, we dig into why companies may take longer to hire, what’s changing in how hiring decisions are made, and what UX candidates can do to stand out, even when it feels like you’re sending resumes into a void.

Whether you’re actively applying or quietly watching the market, this episode will give you perspective and relief. Heather breaks down what’s happening behind the scenes of hiring pipelines right now and reminds us: just because it’s taking longer doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. There are still ways to stand out, you just need a UX job search strategy that reflects the reality of today’s job market.

Check out Narmi's careers page here to see if they're hiring for UX roles!

Topics discussed:

• Why it now takes 12+ weeks (or more) to hire for UX roles
• What’s causing hesitation on both sides of the hiring table
• How candidate caution is slowing down the top of the funnel
• Why Heather says contract roles are NOT a red flag, and can lead to full-time
• What hiring managers actually look for in resumes and portfolios
• Tips for standing out even when the job market feels saturated
• The value of clarity, connection, and showing real outcomes
• How to tell your story without overselling or downplaying your experience

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro & about Heather’s background

00:45 – Why UX hiring feels “wild” right now

04:00 – What’s slowing down the hiring process from the company side

06:30 – The return of more rigorous headcount approval

07:15 – Why candidates are hesitant to even take recruiter calls

08:30 – The emotional risk of leaving one “meh” job for another

09:15 – Are contract roles bad? Heather’s surprising take

10:30 – Why contract roles aren’t a red flag to hiring managers

11:30 – What companies actually want to see on a resume

12:30 – The importance of storytelling over perfection

13:45 – How Heather screens for “intentionality” in candidates

15:00 – The challenge of employer branding at smaller companies

16:10 – Why “unicorn” job descriptions confuse candidates

17:20 – Heather’s thoughts on AI-generated portfolios and resumes

18:30 – Referrals vs. cold applications: which one matters more?

19:45 – Heather’s take on design exercises and case studies

22:30 – Why clarity + connection beats overly polished language

25:15 – Common mistakes candidates make in storytelling

28:45 – How to stay confident during a slow job search

34:10 – Heather’s advice to mid-career UX pros feeling stuck

40:25 – Closing thoughts & where to connect with Heather

🎬 Watch Sarah's free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in today's UX job market

👉 Join Sarah Doody's Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Think you need a perfect UX portfolio and hundreds of job applications to land a senior UX role? Think again.

In this episode, UX career coach Sarah Doody talks with Laura, a former physician turned UX designer, about how she landed a Principal Product Design role, without even applying.

Laura shares how she turned a contract job into a 2.5-year role at Cisco, why she joined Sarah Doody's UX career coaching program, Career Strategy Lab, twice. Laura also shares how staying ready (not scrambling) made all the difference when her UX contract ended. Spoiler: she was hired again within two weeks, and her new VP of Product found her on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ How Laura pivoted from medicine to UX and built her confidence along the way

✔️ Why having just one solid case study was enough to land multiple interviews

✔️ The key mindset shift that helped her stand out—even in a competitive market

✔️ How staying visible on LinkedIn led to a job offer without applying

✔️ Why portfolio perfectionism keeps talented UXers stuck

✔️ The benefit of specializing in a niche like cybersecurity or networking

✔️ How CSL’s frameworks helped her lead, mentor, and present more confidently

Timestamps:

02:06 Laura's Career Journey and Success with Career Strategy Lab

05:23 Importance of Testing and Networking

09:06 Specialization and Job Search Strategy

12:53 Applying Career Strategy Lab Skills in the Workplace

17:39 Final Thoughts and Advice for Job Seekers

19:29 Conclusion and Podcast Information

20:09 Special Message for Job Seekers

🎬 Watch Sarah's free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in today's UX job market

👉 Join Sarah Doody's Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

If you've ever wondered why your UX or product design portfolio isn't getting attention, this episode is your answer.

In this mini workshop, Sarah walks you through the most critical and overlooked fix you can make to your portfolio right now. It’s simple, strategic, and backed by nearly a decade of hiring results.

Spoiler: This isn’t about adding more screens or showing more visuals. It’s about how you tell the story of your work—and it all starts with how you use headlines.

Whether you’re mid-job search or quietly preparing for your next move, this portfolio tip will make your work easier to read, more memorable, and more effective for all 3 types of portfolio users: recruiters, hiring managers, and future colleagues.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ The 3 users of your portfolio—and what they actually need

✔️ Why most portfolios fail the “headline” test (and how to fix yours today)

✔️ How to use the inverted pyramid framework from journalism to structure your slides

✔️ Why a single, sentence-style headline can change how long someone spends with your work

✔️ The easiest way to assess and upgrade your portfolio in under 30 minutes

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Sarah Doty and Career Strategy Lab

00:43 Starting the UX Portfolio Mini Workshop

03:23 Understanding the Users of Your Portfolio

06:57 The Inverted Pyramid Framework

10:59 Practical Portfolio Tips and Examples

17:33 The Importance of Headlines in Your Portfolio

30:03 Q&A and Additional Advice

33:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

🎬 Watch Sarah's free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in today's UX job market

👉 Join Sarah Doody's Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Applied to 50+ UX or Product jobs & still no interviews or offers? Get UX job search help.

Welcome to the Career Strategy Podcast with Sarah Doody, a UX Designer & UX Researcher with 20 years of experience who founded the UX job search accelerator, Career Strategy Lab. She's been doing UX career coaching since 2017.

Follow Sarah on: LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram

After 18 months of job searching with no results, Mariah was out of steam and questioning everything—until she joined Career Strategy Lab.

In this Open House conversation, Sarah talks with Mariah, a UX researcher and experience strategist with a background in customer support and consulting. Mariah came to CSL after burning out from a year and a half of job searching while trying to relocate to Copenhagen. In this honest episode, she shares what finally helped her stop spinning, reconnect with herself, and gain the clarity, confidence, and support she’d been missing.

Whether you’re new to UX or deep in burnout, Mariah’s story will remind you that it’s not too late—and you don’t have to figure it out alone.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ What job searching for 18+ months taught Mariah about burnout and boundaries

✔️ Why trying to “game the system” kept her stuck and exhausted

✔️ How the Compass Sprint reconnected her to her voice, identity, and strengths

✔️ Why the mindset calls inside CSL helped her finally feel like herself again

✔️ How to balance personal and professional identity in your job search

✔️ Her advice for perfectionists and overthinkers: take action, even when it’s messy

Timestamps:

02:27 Mariah's Background and Career Journey

04:21 Joining Career Strategy Lab: Initial Experiences

08:09 Impact of Mindset Calls

11:50 Tangible Actions and Career Roadmap

18:43 Final Advice and Closing Remarks

21:22 Podcast Outro and Additional Resources

22:03 Special Message for Job Seekers

⭐ Support the show! Leave a rating on Spotify or a review on Apple Podcasts to help more UX professionals find this podcast.

🔔 Follow & Subscribe for weekly strategies and stories to help you grow in your UX career—without the burnout.

🎬 Watch Sarah's free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in today's UX job market

👉 Join Sarah Doody's Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Listen before Sep 12 at 8pm PT ... in this live workshop, Sarah Doody shares the 5 UX steps you should also apply to your UX portfolio. This is based off what Sarah has been working for people who got hired, as recently as Sep 1. If you want to be ready for the September Surge, do not snooze on listening to this!

Time Sensitive: Enrollment is OPEN for my UX job search accelerator and will close on Fri, Sep 12 at 8pm PT.

You can learn more, watch success stories, or enroll here.

And you can watch to the recording of my UX portfolio workshop, until this Friday.

If you have questions about the UX job search accelerator program (aka Career Strategy Lab) you can book a 1:1 call here or use the chat widget on the websites linked above to send us a message.

🎬 Watch our free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in 2025

👉 Join Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Apple's iconic marketing helps it stand out because it emphasizes it's benefits, not just features. Instead of just listing every feature of it's products, Apple leans into the benefits. And this tactic, is also how you can stand out as a candidate in your job search.

In this episode, we'll use resume examples to show how you can highlight your benefits, and not just your responsibilities and features. .

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why listing responsibilities makes your resume blend in (not stand out)

✔️ How to turn “feature” statements into compelling benefit-driven bullets

✔️ The marketing lesson Sarah borrowed from Steve Jobs

✔️ Real before-and-after examples from UX candidates

✔️ Why identifying and believing your own value is step #1

✔️ How to infuse your unique benefits across every career “touchpoint”

Timestamps:

00:40 The Importance of Focusing Beyond Responsibilities

02:35 Understanding the Product of You

04:32 Communicating Benefits Over Features

05:43 Real-World Examples of Benefit-Focused Statements

09:10 Becoming a Benefit-Focused Candidate

18:52 Recap and Final Thoughts

21:16 Conclusion and Additional Resources

22:04 Special Message for Job Seekers

🎬 Watch Sarah's free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in today's UX job market

👉 Join Sarah Doody's Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Applied to 50+ UX or Product jobs & still no interviews or offers? Get UX job search help.

Welcome to the Career Strategy Podcast with Sarah Doody, a UX Designer & UX Researcher with 20 years of experience who founded the UX job search accelerator, Career Strategy Lab. She's been doing UX career coaching since 2017.

Follow Sarah on: LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram

Wondering how to stand out in UX without burning out? Former technical recruiter Ellie shares her story of switching into product design—and how Career Strategy Lab helped her get her confidence back.

In this episode, Sarah interviews Ellie, a former technical recruiter turned UX designer, who joined Career Strategy Lab while navigating new motherhood, burnout, and the unpredictable job market. Despite landing interviews, Ellie felt stuck—and knew she needed a structured, supportive way to rebuild confidence and stand out.

You’ll hear how she overcame perfectionism, reframed her job search, and built career habits that now extend beyond her portfolio and into her life.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why Ellie left tech recruiting to pursue UX—and doesn’t regret it

✔️ What made her say “yes” to CSL (and why she wishes she joined sooner)

✔️ How the Compass Statement gave her clarity and saved her time

✔️ The unexpected life shifts that came from doing the work with intention

✔️ Tips for breaking perfectionism and building habits that stick

✔️ What it’s like to join CSL while navigating new parenthood and burnout

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Career Strategy Lab

00:38 Episode Overview and Open House Context

02:23 Meet Ellie: From Technical Recruiter to Product Designer

05:19 Ellie's Career Journey and CSL Experience

09:16 The Impact of Career Strategy Lab

18:47 Advice and Final Thoughts

21:32 Conclusion and Next Steps

⭐ Support the show! Leave a rating on Spotify or a review on Apple Podcasts to help more UX professionals find this podcast.

🔔 Follow & Subscribe for weekly strategies and stories to help you grow in your UX career—without the burnout.

🎬 Watch Sarah's free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in today's UX job market

👉 Join Sarah Doody's Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Still waiting for recruiters to notice you? One small change to your LinkedIn profile could change everything.

In this episode, Sarah shares a real story from a workshop attendee who updated just one line of their LinkedIn profile and got five solid recruiter leads within 24 hours. You’ll learn what part of your profile to focus on (hint: it’s the headline), how to write it in a way that stands out, and why clarity and positioning matter more than lofty statements like “designing for impact.”

Plus, Sarah breaks down the three-part UX job search strategy you need to attract the right opportunities, without burning out, second-guessing, or rewriting your portfolio 100 times.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ The one LinkedIn section that has the biggest impact on recruiter outreach

✔️ Why most UX job seekers get their headlines totally wrong

✔️ How to apply product strategy thinking to your career

✔️ The 3 essential UX job search strategies: Design, Marketing, and Sales

✔️ What happens when you’re missing even one of those strategies

✔️ How to stand out in a sea of qualified candidates (without starting from scratch)

Additional Resources:

Episode 18: Avoid This Mistake When Writing Your LinkedIn Profile headline

UX Job Search Workshop

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Purpose

00:38 The Power of LinkedIn Optimization

01:27 Understanding the UX Hiring Process

02:45 Crafting a Standout LinkedIn Headline

05:33 Three Key Strategies for UX Job Search

07:27 Invitation to the Workshop

08:10 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

09:29 Conclusion and Additional Resources

10:09 Special Message for Struggling Job Seekers

🎬 Watch Sarah's free UX Job Search Workshop and learn how to stand out in today's UX job market

👉 Join Sarah Doody's Career Strategy Lab, a UX job search accelerator for UX and Product people.

👋 Say hi and follow our host, Sarah Doody, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.