Career Strategy Podcast with Sarah Doody | UX, Product Design, UX Research

Most UX professionals spend years trying to be good at everything. Eric Shumake, founder of HXR Labs, spent 20 years getting really good at one thing and it kept opening doors he didn't expect.

Eric is a principal UX researcher and a well-known voice in healthcare UX. His career has taken him through companies like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Myriad Genetics, and AliveCor.

He also teaches, including a popular course on Maven on breaking into healthcare UX, and has been exploring how AI can meaningfully (and responsibly) augment research without replacing the judgment that makes research trustworthy.

In this episode, Eric and Sarah cover a lot of ground: how specializing almost always beats generalizing, what surprises people when they try to bring standard UX practices into clinical environments, why Eric thinks of every role as a gig, and what he'd prioritize if he were managing someone's job search like a product.

Topics Discussed

✅ Why specializing beats generalizing and how to niche down even when it feels risky

✅ How transferable skills work in practice: why experience in one highly regulated industry (like finance) can open doors in another (like healthcare)

✅ The biggest blind spot people bring into healthcare UX

✅ Why "recommendations are where insights go to die" and how to tie research to decisions and numbers so stakeholders actually act on it

✅ Treating every role as a gig and why that mindset is more practical than it sounds in today's job market

✅ Why posting consistently on LinkedIn is one of the highest-leverage things a UX professional can do in a job search right now

✅ Where AI genuinely helps in UX research (desk research, competitive analysis, automating the time-consuming parts) and where to draw a hard line

✅ What neurodivergence in the workplace looks like from the insideduring a job search

Links & Resources

🔗 Eric Shumake on LinkedIn

🔗 HXR Labs

🔗 Eric's Maven course on breaking into healthcare UX

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

Re-entering the UX job market after years away is harder than most people expect, especially when you're doing it alone.

After 12 years at Constant Contact, growing from associate interaction designer to principal UX designer, Emmanuel relocated, took a deliberate career break, and then tried to re-enter a job market that had completely changed. He spent three months rebuilding his portfolio alone, then another three months applying and hearing almost nothing. His LinkedIn hadn't been updated since 2017. He burned out.

In this episode, Emmanuel shares what finally got him unstuck; why working on his resume, portfolio, and LinkedIn in parallel changed his messaging faster than tackling them one at a time; how early feedback from coaches and a community shortened iteration cycles he'd been stuck in for months; and what shifted when he started applying only to roles that actually fit. He's actively interviewing now, and the inbound LinkedIn requests have started coming in too.

Topics Discussed:

✅ What re-entering the UX job market after a long tenure at one company feels like and how to close the gap

✅ Why working on your resume, portfolio, and LinkedIn in parallel sharpens your message faster than doing them one at a time

✅ How long iteration cycles quietly stall your progress and what to do instead

✅ Why submitting imperfect work for feedback early is one of the highest-leverage moves you can make

✅ What AI tools genuinely help when job searching and where human judgment still matters more

✅ The confidence cost of mass applying

✅ What changes when you get more selective about the roles you apply to

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

If you're sending dozens of applications per day and you aren't hearing back, this podcast is for you.

Carlos was applying to dozens of UX jobs a day, swiping through listings like a job board version of a dating app, and hearing almost nothing back. Out of hundreds of applications, he got two responses and both were rejections, but he knew he was a good designer.

In this episode, Carlos shares how he went from mass applying with no traction to landing a product designer role at Covenant Eyes and then getting promoted to senior product designer within the same year. He talks about what changed when he stopped treating the job search like a numbers game, how he used the same frameworks he learned in Career Strategy Lab to make his case for a promotion once he got there.

Topics Discussed:

✅ Why mass applying isn't productive and what to do instead

✅ How to use the skills from your job search to land a promotion

✅ Why confidence in interviews matters more than having a perfect portfolio

✅ A portfolio website vs a portfolio presentation

✅ How research a hiring manager before your interview helps you stand out

✅ How the skills you learn during your job search transfer directly into your work after being hired

✅ Why waiting until you feel confident enough to start is the wrong approach

Links From This Episode:

🔗 Free UX Case Study Template

🔗 Career Strategy Lab Syllabus

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

Are you getting ghosted in your UX job search despite knowing you're qualified? When you have 5, 10, 15 years of experience and you're applying to 20+ jobs a week without hearing back or you're not making it past the first round, it's natural to start thinking you're the problem.

You're not. You're just unpositioned.

In this episode, Sarah makes the case that ghosting is usually a positioning problem, rather than a skills issue. Positioning is how you communicate what you do, who you do it for, and why it matters. It's the thread that connects what you've done in the past to what you could do for a team if they hired you. When that thread is missing, recruiters and hiring managers move on because your materials aren't clearly paining the picture for them.

Sarah walks through what it actually takes to fix your positioning, starting with the one foundational step most people skip: getting clear on who you are and what makes you different, before touching your resume, portfolio, or LinkedIn.

Topics Discussed:

✅ Why getting ghosted in your UX job search isn't usually a qualification problem

✅ What causes recruiters to move on from your resume

✅ What "positioning" means in the context of a UX job search

✅ The step most people skip that ties everything together

✅ How applying to fewer jobs can get you more interviews

✅ Creating a Compass Statement and how it acts as a filter for every career asset you create

✅ How niching down your job search to a specific industry or type of company can transform your UX job search

Links From This Episode:

🔗 How to stand out as a candidate by focusing on your benefits vs features

🔗 Developing your positioning through a career roadmap and compass statement

🔗 Free UX Case Study Template

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

What do you do when you have years of experience, you're making it through rounds of interviews, but you still aren't getting offers? For Andrew, the answer was scrapping his entire UX portfolio and starting over.

Andrew had been applying to jobs for a year. He was making it to the final interview rounds at companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google, but he wasn't getting offers. On paper, everything looked great. He couldn't figure out what was missing.

Eventually he did. After six years at GE, he'd gotten so deep in the work that in interviews, he'd talk at length about how interesting the products were and the intricacies of the industry. He was selling the products instead of himself. So he scrapped everything and rebuilt his portfolio around a single core message: what he does, what he's good at, and what he can bring to the companies he's applying to. 

The clarity changed how he talked about himself in interviews. By the end of each conversation, hiring managers knew exactly who he was and how he'd be an asset. Three offers followed, including one from Blue Origin, where he accepted a role that brought him back to the intersection of hardware and software that drew him to UX in the first place.

Topics Discussed:

✅ The difference between selling the product you worked on versus selling yourself to a potential employer

✅ The value of working on your resume, LinkedIn, and portfolio in parallel rather than sequentially

✅ Why making it to the final round but not getting the offer might signal a problem with your portfolio

✅ How perfectionism and long iteration cycles quietly destroy your confidence and what breaks the pattern

✅ What it looks like to rebuild your career materials around a single core message and how that clarity shows up in interviews too

Links From This Episode:

🔗 Free UX Case Study Template

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

NDAs stop a lot of UX professionals from including their best work in their portfolio, but they might not be the obstacle you think they are.

Sarah has spent nearly a decade coaching UX professionals, and one of the questions she gets most often is how to handle NDA-protected work in a portfolio. In this episode, she walks through what NDAs typically do and don't restrict, how to write about protected work without violating your agreement, and why UX recruiters and hiring managers aren't looking for pixel-perfect deliverables (and what they are looking for instead.)

Sarah also shares a concrete example of how to frame a confidential project in a way that's compelling, specific, and respectful of any agreements you've signed. If you've been leaving projects out of your portfolio because you weren't sure what you could share, this episode is worth a listen.

Topics Discussed

✅ What NDAs actually restrict vs. what most people assume they restrict (they're not the same thing)

✅ A concrete example of how to write about a confidential project without naming the company, showing screens, or violating any agreements

✅ Why UX recruiters and hiring managers care far more about how you think than what the final product looked like

✅ Practical ways to include visuals from protected projects without revealing anything proprietary

✅ How NDA concerns often uncover the real problem: not knowing how to structure a UX case study

✅ How to go back to a former employer and ask the right questions to clarify what your NDA actually allows

✅ Why your UX portfolio doesn't have to be a website and how a presentation format can sidestep a lot of NDA concerns entirely

Links From This Episode:

🔗 Free UX Case Study Template

🔗 UX Hiring Insights: Alexander Zeh of ManyChat on Diverse UX Teams and Standout Portfolios

🔗 UX Hiring Insights: Ben Peck on UX Generalists, Soft Skills, & Standout Portfolios

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

Have you been applying to UX jobs you know you're qualified for and still not hearing back? Chances are, your experience isn't the problem, it's how you're presenting it.

After nearly a decade of coaching UX and product professionals and reviewing thousands of resumes, portfolios, and LinkedIn profiles, Sarah has seen the same red flag mistakes show up again and again. The candidates making them are talented, experienced designers who simply were never taught how to market themselves.

In this episode, Sarah breaks down one major red flag mistake for resumes, portfolios, and LinkedIn. Spoiler alert: fixing it doesn't require months of work.

Sarah also shares the story of Jonathan, a UX director with 20 years of experience who was getting ghosted on 75% of his applications. He was qualified, but his materials weren't telling his story effectively. Once he addressed the right things, he landed an executive-level role at the University of Houston.

Your materials don't have to be perfect... they need to be 10% better than everyone else making the same, avoidable, mistakes.

Topics Discussed

✅ What hiring managers and applicant tracking systems are silently penalizing you for

✅ Why showing deliverables without context, process, or decision-making is leaving hiring managers cold

✅ What to put in your LinkedIn headline instead of just your job title and company name (and why)

✅ How to optimize your LinkedIn profile for the algorithm

✅ How to rewrite vague resume bullet points so they communicate scope and outcomes

✅ Why talented UX professionals with years of experience still struggle to get interviews

✅ How to break out of the perfection trap that's keeping you in research mode

Links From This Episode:

🔗 Free UX Portfolio Case Study Template

🔗 Optimizing Your LinkedIn Headline

🔗 How to optimize your resume for the ATS so you can get more UX job interviews

🔗 EP 170: Jonathan's Journey From UX Layoff to UX Executive

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

Do you ever wonder what happens on the other side of a UX job application, like who's reading your portfolio, what makes them keep going, and what makes them close the tab? Sarah sits down with Jeni Bible, a UX Manager at Home Depot who has a uniquely full-circle perspective.

Jeni went through Career Strategy Lab, landed her role at Home Depot just four months later, and is now the hiring manager evaluating candidates for that same type of position. Jeni brings 27 years in the design industry, starting as a graphic designer, running her own agency for two decades, and making her way into UX through e-commerce. She now leads the online UX team at homedepot.com, focused on critical touchpoints like checkout, payments, and promotions.

In this conversation, Jeni gets candid about what she looks for in a portfolio, why most candidates miss the mark in interviews, and what she told recruiters to help them filter the right people for her team. If you're in the thick of a UX job search or considering a career pivot, this interview with Jeni will be insightful.

Topics discussed in this episode:

✅ How to get your application through a UX recruiters initial filter

✅ What portfolio format impresses UX recruiters more than a polished personal website

✅ The questions to ask a UX recruiter that the job description won't answer

✅ Why UX recruiters want to see failed tests and pivots, not just polished outcomes

✅ The panel interview move that almost always advances candidates to the next round

✅ How to include a canceled project in your UX portfolio without it hurting your chances

✅ Home Depot's UX career ladder explained and how contractor roles can open the door

✅ How Jeni uses peer feedback as a hiring manager

Home Depot Careers

Contractor Depot

Timestamps:

00:00 Introducing Jeni Bible, UX Manager

01:13 Online vs. enterprise UX at Home Depot

02:32 Jeni's 27-year path into UX

05:35 Translating agency experience to in-house roles

07:47 What to ask recruiters on the first call

11:32 How CSL helped Jeni find direction

15:04 Tailoring a portfolio for a manager role

22:36 From 1,500 applicants to 10

24:07 Password-protected portfolios

29:08 What Jeni looks for in case studies

33:32 Candidates who don't ask about the team

36:27 Let the hiring manager choose your case study

39:22 Video case studies and prototype demos that stood out

41:48 The art of the pause during portfolio presentations

49:40 How to handle a canceled project in your portfolio

51:27 Reaching out on LinkedIn: what works, what doesn't

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

What does it take to build a UX portfolio that makes a hiring manager stop scrolling? Alexander Zeh, Head of Product Design at ManyChat, is here to share how he approaches hiring and what many candidates get wrong.

He breaks down how he structures his hiring process to reduce bias, why a failed project can be a stronger case study than a polished one, how to handle NDA-protected work, and why the "hero designer" narrative is working against you. Whether you're actively applying to UX roles or just trying to understand what hiring managers are really thinking, this conversation will change how you approach your next portfolio presentation.

Topics discussed in this episode:

✅ Why Alexander treats team diversity as a design decision

✅ The grading criteria that lets hiring managers make a confident call

✅ Why clear writing and articulation matter more than Figma fluency

✅ How constraints and failed projects can make a stronger case study than a polished outcome

✅ How claiming to do it all might be a red flag to hiring managers

✅ Whether UX job seekers in different countries need different portfolios 

✅ How to handle NDA-protected work

✅ Why showing your thinking at every fork in the road matters more than the final product

ManyChat Careers Page

Metaview

CSL Podcast Episode Archive

Timestamps:

00:57 Intro: Alexander and ManyChat

03:10 Alexander's career journey

07:26 From consulting to in-house leadership

12:36 Building diverse teams intentionally

15:26 Why grading criteria beats "I'll know it when I see it"

16:22 Blind submissions to avoid groupthink

18:16 What hiring managers actually look for

22:19 What standout candidates do differently

28:09 Does location affect your UX job search?

35:25 Showing impact without a happy ending

44:34 Resilience, vision, and holding the tension

47:55 Handling NDA work in your portfolio

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

Are you spending hours on your UX job search but not actually making progress? The problem usually isn't effort. It's focus. Most job seekers stay busy tweaking portfolios, scrolling job boards, and hanging out in Slack groups, but at the end of the day, they can't point to anything that moved them closer to getting hired.

In this episode of the Career Strategy Podcast, Sarah Doody shares a simple Post-It note hack that transformed how she runs her business, and how you can use the same concept to cut through the noise and focus on what actually matters in your job search.

Topics discussed in this episode:

✅ The 6-word question a business coach told Sarah to write on a Post-It note

✅ Why "being busy" in your job search is not the same as making progress

✅ How to identify what your job search actually needs right now

✅ Why tweaking your portfolio for the fifth time probably isn't the answer

✅ How to create your own Post-It note filter for your UX job search

✅ The difference between false productivity and real momentum

Timestamps:

00:00 The best productivity tool might be a Post-It note

00:24 The 6-word question that changed how Sarah runs her business

02:24 Why "is this a revenue generating activity" was a game changer

04:49 Your job search is like a business

05:45 How to write your own Post-It note question

06:30 The trap of tweaking your portfolio all Saturday

07:06 False sense of productivity and why it's the enemy of getting hired

08:45 You don't need more time, you need the right focus

09:33 Send Sarah your Post-It note on LinkedIn

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube