Designing Your Career

“When I think back, I realized that I've always been designing my career,” Sarah remarks. She describes herself as a systems thinker who can spot problems and opportunities in sales, marketing, product, and engineering. However, her multi-talented nature often meant people didn't know what to do with her, and she had to design her own roles at different startups. Barry recalls how when he joined ThoughtWorks in 2010, only engineers were considered essential, and designers were struggling to find a place. He comments that the talent to design from experience to prototype is a core skill, and one of the main reasons his former colleague went on to become CEO of Thoughtworks. “When I think of design, it's not like just designing products, it's designing processes,” Barry comments. “It's designing onboarding experiences for people, …to know what the needs are, and then to create a solution that creates this great experience.” 

The Career Strategy Lab

Sarah shares her journey from UX consulting to building her education business, Career Strategy Lab, which helps job seekers and professionals find purpose, reward, and recognition in their careers. She describes the evolution of the lab, from creating online classes and in-person workshops to running a six-month career incubator. “We go through creating all kinds of the assets you need for your job search,” she tells Barry. “It's a joy to watch,” Barry remarks, “but also to see the results, creating social mobility for all these people, helping them figure out what they actually want to do and enjoy, and then actually creating better opportunities for them. It's tangible. Not many people get to build products where they really can see how they're helping their users.”

Looking Ahead

Sarah’s new podcast, Career Strategy Podcast, is a strategic marketing move for her business. She plans to repurpose the podcast content to create social media content and she has designed a system to make this happen. She also talks about her upcoming book with Rosenfeld, The Product of You, and how she plans to use the podcast interviews as content for the book.

A special message to listeners

Nobody Studios is a new venture studio, co-founded by Barry, with the purpose of derisking pre-seed stage business ideas. Our goal is to create 100 compelling companies in the next five years. We believe we can achieve this by minimizing the time, speed, and capital required to validate truly repeatable and scalable business models before any significant venture investment. We're excited about radically changing how companies are built and funded, and even democratizing wealth creation. If you share our passion and want to contribute your talent, capital, or influence, we would love to hear from you! Contact us at: Nobody Studios | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | Pinterest 

Find full show notes at BarryO'Reilly.com

Resources

Sarah Doody on LinkedIn

Career Strategy Lab | Career Strategy Podcast

The Product of You