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

In this episode, Sarah Doody talks with Jared Tredly, a design recruiter at Shopify, about what really happens behind the scenes when UX and Product Design candidates apply for roles.

Jared shares an honest look at how generalist recruiters interpret design briefs, what they scan for in the first few seconds of reviewing a portfolio, and why so many designers accidentally bury the most important information. He also breaks down what senior-level designers must show, why overly long case studies backfire, and how to get visibility for design roles at Shopify through their general “design pool” application.

If you’ve ever wondered what recruiters are actually thinking as they review your portfolio, this episode takes you inside the process.

What you’ll learn:

• How recruiters evaluate portfolios when reviewing hundreds per day
• Why clarity, hierarchy, and intuitive navigation matter more than visuals
• The difference between junior and senior-level UX signals
• Why “micro” case studies are often more effective than showing your entire process
• How Shopify screens applications and why complete applications are critical
• How to get into Shopify’s internal design candidate pool

Links from this episode:

• Learn about working at Shopify
• Connect with Jared on LinkedIn

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

In this episode, Sarah Doody chats with Faith, a Product Designer who successfully transitioned from a layoff to a Product Design role, all while navigating UX career uncertainty. Faith shares how she used Career Strategy Lab’s intentional UX job search framework to slow down, get clear on what she wanted, and create a UX portfolio and application strategy that aligned with her career goals.

In this episode, Faith shares how Career Strategy Lab helped her prioritize the “why” behind her career choices, overcome imposter syndrome, and set clear boundaries to avoid ending up in the wrong role. From networking on LinkedIn to being picky about where she applied, Faith’s story will inspire anyone going through a career transition or navigating a tough job search.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why being intentional about your job search makes all the difference

✔️ How to avoid the trap of applying to jobs just for the sake of it

✔️ How Faith used Career Strategy Lab to design her job search strategy

✔️ The importance of knowing your “Compass Statement” to guide decisions

✔️ Why Faith turned down a “perfectly good” offer in favor of the right fit

✔️ How CSL’s support and community made her more confident in interviews

✔️ Tips for networking and finding job opportunities that align with your values

✔️ Why staying true to your career goals led to better offers and more options

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Sarah Doody and Career Strategy Lab

00:38 Episode Overview and Open House Context

01:46 Faith's Career Journey and UX Experience

03:09 Navigating Job Search Challenges

05:05 The Importance of Intentionality in Job Applications

07:43 The Role of Career Strategy Lab in Job Search

09:21 Finding Job Opportunities and Networking

14:38 Impact of Career Strategy Lab on Personal and Professional Growth

17:11 Advice for Prospective Career Strategy Lab Members

25:33 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

In this episode, Sarah talks about how AI is reshaping the UX landscape and why three key skills are more important than ever for professionals looking to stand out in the evolving job market.

Despite the rise of AI tools, it’s not about being replaced—it’s about evolving your mindset and skills to stay relevant. In this episode, Sarah explains why UX professionals need to stop thinking like "doers" and start thinking like "drivers." You’ll also hear why the critical skills of speed, quality thinking, and impact are necessary to stay valuable in your career.

This episode is for anyone feeling uncertain about how AI fits into your skillset or wondering how to stay relevant in an AI-powered UX job market.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why shifting from being a “doer” to a “driver” is essential for staying valuable in UX

✔️ The 3 most important skills for UX professionals in the age of AI: speed, quality thinking, and impact

✔️ How to leverage speed without sacrificing quality in your UX work

✔️ Why quality thinking (and not relying on AI) is crucial to uncovering nuances and insights

✔️ How to make sure your work has true impact—going beyond just delivering information

✔️ The danger of de-skilling and how to stay sharp while using AI as a tool

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction: The Future of UX Jobs in the Age of AI

00:39 Meet Sarah Doody: Your UX Career Guide

01:19 The Value of Strategic Thinking Over Task Execution

02:05 Three Critical Skills for UX Professionals

05:39 Skill 1: Speed with Strategy

09:42 Skill 2: Quality Thinking

14:52 Skill 3: Impact and Influence

19:44 The Risk of De-Skilling in the Age of AI

24:50 Conclusion: Be a Driver, Not a Doer

25:54 Call to Action: Support the Podcast

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

In this episode, Sarah interviews Vasudha, a UX Designer at Amazon AWS Applied AI, to talk about what it really looks like to invest in your career early, and how the impact compounds for years.

Vasudha joined Career Strategy Lab's UX job search accelerator in late 2023 while finishing her master’s degree, navigating the uncertainty of the job market as an international student, and waiting to see whether her AWS internship would convert to a full-time role. Today, she’s thriving at Amazon, and still actively uses CSL frameworks for LinkedIn updates, internal promotions, and long-term career growth.

This episode is a powerful reminder that Career Strategy Lab isn’t just about landing one job. It’s about building a career operating system you can reuse, refine, and rely on over time.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why Vasudha decided to invest in CSL while still in grad school

✔️ How talking to an alumni helped her decide to join

✔️ Why CSL skills extend far beyond the job search

✔️ How the portfolio sprint changed how she approaches real projects at Amazon

✔️ Why answering “why” matters just as much as showing artifacts

✔️ How CSL frameworks support promotions—not just hiring

✔️ The confidence shift that comes from understanding your blind spots

✔️ Why embracing being a UX generalist unlocked clarity and growth

✔️ How CSL helps you tell the right story about yourself (not the wrong one)

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Sarah Doody and Career Strategy Lab

00:38 Episode Overview and Open House Context

01:21 Vasudha's Journey: From Master's to Amazon

05:38 The Impact of Career Strategy Lab

10:56 Portfolio Development and Career Growth

16:37 The Importance of Storytelling in UX Careers

21:54 Advice for Joining Career Strategy Lab

23:41 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

In this episode, Sarah chats with Ben Peck, Director of Product Design & Global Strategy at nCino and a longtime community builder in the UX and product world, to demystify how UX hiring really works, from the perspective of someone who’s hired again and again.

Ben brings over 20 years of experience across agencies, tech, leadership, and community building. As the co-founder of Front Conference and former Executive Director of Product Hive, he’s reviewed hundreds of portfolios, partnered closely with recruiters, and built high-performing design teams across industries.

Together, Sarah and Ben unpack what actually happens after you click “apply,” how hiring managers scan portfolios, why storytelling matters more than polish, and how community and relationships quietly shape most UX careers.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s going on behind the scenes of UX hiring, or how to stand out without burning yourself out, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ What hiring managers actually look for in UX portfolios

✔️ Why your portfolio needs a hook—and what that hook should be

✔️ How recruiters and hiring managers split screening responsibilities

✔️ The biggest mistakes candidates make when telling case study stories

✔️ Why generalists are thriving in today’s UX job market

✔️ How to make industry or role pivots without starting over

✔️ The smartest way to reach out to companies (and who not to DM)

✔️ Why community—not cold applications—is the real career accelerant

✔️ How hiring managers evaluate experience beyond “years on paper”

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Purpose of the Podcast

00:38 Guest Introduction: Ben Peck

03:25 Ben Peck's Career Journey

05:31 The Value of Being a Generalist

10:22 Hiring Insights and Job Market Trends

20:59 Portfolio Tips for Job Seekers

28:57 The Importance of Storytelling in Portfolios

30:42 Balancing Content and Design

32:21 Effective Use of Prototypes and Videos

40:00 Transitioning to a UX Career

43:22 The Role of Community in Career Growth

48:37 Advice for Job Seekers

49:33 Lightning Round: Fun and Personal Insights

53:13 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

In this episode, Sarah chats with Kellyn, a market researcher who successfully pivoted into a Lead UX Researcher role at Weedmaps, with a 40% salary increase, after feeling stuck, overlooked, and unsure how to position herself for UX roles.

Despite 13+ years of research experience (and a partner who is a career coach) Kellyn wasn’t getting traction when applying to UX research jobs. She knew she had the skills, but lacked the clarity, confidence, and story to prove it. Through Career Strategy Lab, she rebuilt her confidence, clarified her direction, transformed her LinkedIn, and created a portfolio that focused on thinking and storytelling, not flashy visuals.

This episode is a powerful reminder that career pivots don’t require starting over—they require structure, strategy, and the confidence to own your experience.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ How Kellyn reframed market research experience for UX research roles

✔️ Why the Compass Statement was the turning point in her job search

✔️ How narrowing focus saved her time, energy, and burnout

✔️ Why LinkedIn optimization led to real recruiter interest

✔️ How storytelling, not a portfolio website, landed her UX job interviews

✔️ The role of community, coaching, and feedback in rebuilding confidence

✔️ Why CSL is an investment with long-term, compounding career impact

✔️ How clarity led to better interviews, better offers, and better pay

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Sarah Doody and Career Strategy Lab

00:38 Episode Overview and Open House Context

02:10 Kellyn's Career Journey and Success Story

05:00 The Impact of Career Strategy Lab on Confidence and Job Search

13:55 The Importance of LinkedIn Optimization

16:11 Crafting Compelling Case Studies and Portfolios

23:44 Final Thoughts and Advice for Career Strategy Lab Participants

27:08 Conclusion and Additional Resources

27:49 Special Message for Job Seekers

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

In this expert interview, Sarah Doody is joined by Patrick Neeman, Director of UX & AI Experiences at Workday, to pull back the curtain on how UX hiring actually works today—and where candidates are getting tripped up.

Patrick brings a rare perspective: he’s led UX teams, taught UX at General Assembly, worked inside applicant tracking systems, and now hires designers in an AI-driven product environment. Together, Sarah and Patrick unpack the biggest misconceptions about ATS systems, why portfolios often fail the six-second test, how soft skills influence hiring decisions, and what senior designers really need to focus on to stand out in today’s market.

This episode is especially valuable if you’re making it to interviews but not offers, feeling unsure how AI fits into your skillset, or questioning whether your resume and portfolio are helping—or hurting—you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why companies are often bad at hiring—and how that impacts candidates

✔️ The truth about ATS filters, knockout questions, and resume formatting

✔️ Why two-column resumes fail ATS systems (and what to do instead)

✔️ What hiring managers notice in the first 6 seconds of reviewing a resume

✔️ How soft skills like alignment, collaboration, and communication influence hiring

✔️ Why decks often outperform portfolio websites in UX interviews

✔️ How AI tools like Lovable are changing expectations for prototyping

✔️ The role of “weak ties” in landing jobs—and why relationships matter more than applications

✔️ Red flags candidates should avoid during interviews and outreach

✔️ Why being “nice to work with” is a real career advantage

Links From This Episode:

Patrick's Book: uxGPT: Mastering AI Assistants for User Experience Designers and Product Management Professionals

Patrick's Article: What’s makes an effective UX professional

Patrick's Article: What’s your Ideal Designer Profile?

The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited

The ADP Checklist: Resources about Resumes, Portfolios and Interviews for UX Professionals

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Sarah Doody and Career Strategy Lab

00:38 Welcoming Patrick Neiman: Insights into UX Hiring

01:19 Patrick's Background and Experience

04:19 The State of the UX Job Market

07:21 The Importance of Writing Skills in UX

08:49 Applicant Tracking Systems and AI in Hiring

13:28 Contract Roles in UX: Myths and Realities

14:42 Standing Out as a UX Candidate

17:48 Soft Skills: The Superpower of UX Professionals

22:05 Tips for Early Career UX Designers

24:15 Prototyping vs. Figma: The Future of Design

24:28 The Value of Personal Projects in Portfolios

24:57 Challenges in Redesigning Complex Systems

26:10 Misconceptions About Hiring Software

27:23 The Six-Second Resume Test

29:16 Networking and the Power of Weak Ties

33:10 Tips for Advancing in Your UX Career

41:46 Balancing Figma and AI-Assisted Design Tools

43:21 Final Thoughts and Advice for Job Seekers

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

In this episode, Sarah talks with Allie, a Senior UX Designer with over a decade of experience, about what it really looks like to lose your confidence mid-career, and how to rebuild it without rushing, panicking, or burning yourself out.

After navigating years of instability, repeated layoffs around her, and slowly losing her sense of confidence at work, Allie joined Career Strategy Lab feeling disconnected from her own value. Through foundational work like career inventory, 360° feedback, and the Compass Statement, she rebuilt clarity around her strengths, rediscovered her story, and landed a new role at PepsiCo with confidence restored.

This episode is a powerful reminder that confidence isn’t something you “should already have.” It’s something you rebuild through clarity, structure, and self-trust.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ What it actually feels like to “lose your mojo” after years in UX

✔️ Why giving yourself grace is a strategic career move—not a weakness

✔️ How taking inventory of your work restores confidence fast

✔️ The role of external feedback in uncovering hidden strengths

✔️ Why trying to rush ahead in your job search often backfires

✔️ How watching others’ critiques can improve your own portfolio and storytelling

✔️ Why treating your job search like a real project changes everything

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Sarah Doody and Career Strategy Lab

00:38 Episode Overview and Open House Context

02:29 Meet Allie: A UX Journey

03:59 Confidence and Career Strategy Lab

08:19 Mindset Shifts and Lessons Learned

11:18 Impactful Feedback and Storytelling

13:40 Final Thoughts and Advice

16:58 Conclusion and Podcast Outro

17:38 Special Message for Job Seekers

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

Still applying to dozens, or hundreds, of UX roles and not hearing back? It’s not the number of applications that gets you hired. It’s the strategy behind how you position yourself.

In this rapid-fire episode, Sarah breaks down the five things she consistently sees among UX candidates who are getting hired right now. Whether you’ve applied to 50, 100, or 200+ jobs without results, these are the shifts that will change your job search immediately.

This episode is your wake-up call: Stop applying to more roles and start fixing these five root issues.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why applying to more jobs won’t fix your job search

✔️ How to optimize your LinkedIn so recruiters find you

✔️ Why most candidates dramatically undervalue their skills

✔️ The danger of getting feedback from people who aren't involved in hiring

✔️ The truth about UX portfolios—and why yours should not be a website

✔️ Why clarity about what you want is the real job search shortcut

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Purpose

00:38 Common Job Search Mistakes

02:07 Leveraging LinkedIn for Job Search

04:18 Valuing Your Skills and Experience

07:22 Overcoming the Unhirable Mindset

10:46 Creating Effective Portfolios

14:18 Clarity in Career Goals

17:57 Recap and Final Thoughts

19:28 Career Strategy Lab and Workshops

20:56 Podcast Reviews and Closing

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

In this interview, Sarah sits down with Steven, a longtime UX leader who spent 17 years at the same digital agency before an unexpected layoff forced him to re-evaluate everything. With no portfolio, no updated resume, and low confidence, Steven joined Career Strategy Lab, and everything changed.

Today, Steven is thriving as a fractional product design director, long-term contractor, and consultant helping companies elevate their UX teams and integrate AI into their workflows. In this conversation, he shares how Career Stratgegy Lab's UX job search accelerator helped him rebuild his confidence, tell a clear story about 20+ years of experience, streamline his job search, and even reinvent himself as a business owner.

Whether you're mid-career, coming out of a layoff, or curious about consulting, Steven’s story is a grounding reminder that clarity, strategy, and community can completely change your UX career trajectory.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ How Steven went from 25% confidence to 80% confidence in his job search

✔️ The myth he had to unlearn: your portfolio is not the first step

✔️ Why clarity + foundational work = faster, less stressful job search

✔️ How CSL’s community accelerated his progress and kept him motivated

✔️ The mindset shift that helped him stop applying blindly to jobs

✔️ How he now uses CSL’s frameworks to land consulting and contract roles

✔️ Why your “career operating system” needs ongoing updates

✔️ How knowing your values helps you choose the right opportunities

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Sarah Doody and Career Strategy Lab

00:38 Episode Overview and Open House Context

01:26 Sarah Doody's Background and UX Career Coaching

02:31 Steven's Journey and Career Strategy Lab Experience

04:13 Building Confidence and Telling Your Story

06:25 The Power of Community and Networking

09:55 Mindset Shifts and Career Value Criteria

13:03 Freelance and Consulting Success Tips

16:01 Final Thoughts and Advice

18:53 Conclusion and Next Steps

🎯 How I can help with your UX job search

📋 Get my UX case study template

👋 Follow me, on LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube