Designing Your Career + UX for Small Business with Sarah Doody — DT101 E137

Sarah Doody is a user research experience designer and researcher. She's also the founder of Career Strategy Lab, a UX career coaching program. In 2011, she co-created the curriculum and taught for General Assembly's first 11-week UX intensive program in New York City. She has extensive experience doing experience design, product strategy, and user research for companies including Fatherly, Sling, Citi Bike, We Work, Domino Magazine, Tictail, the Muse, Dow Jones and more. She speaks at conferences and teaches workshops worldwide. Today, we talk about designing your career and user experience for small businesses.

Listen to learn about:
>> Creating a career roadmap
>> Career marketing materials and messaging
>> The importance of stories and storytelling when interviewing

Our Guest
Sarah Doody is the founder of Career Strategy Lab™, a program that helps UX and product professionals at all career stages navigate their job search and articulate their skills and experience through individualized and group coaching. She is also the host of the Career Strategy Lab podcast.

Since 2021, professionals who have worked with Sarah have increased their salaries by 40% on average and have been hired at prestigious brands such as Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, Nordstrom, Spotify, Blue Origin on average in 3.5 months. She has been featured as an expert in Forbes, Fast Company, Insider, Fox Business, and more. 

Show Highlights
[01:43] Sarah originally planned to have a career in neuroscience.
[02:19] During a gap year, she ended up in graphic and web design instead, which led to a focus on information architecture.
[2:50] From there, Sarah turned to product and user experience design and user research.
[3:43] Launching her own consulting company.
[04:40] How creating and teaching a workshop about building a design portfolio launched Sarah’s new career coaching business.
[06:07] One mistake many make when it comes to their careers.
[07:57] Sarah’s company helps people do research on themselves to help them find jobs and careers that fulfill them professionally and personally.
[09:04] Being more intentional when thinking about your career.
[10:47] Creating a career roadmap.
[15:08] Sarah’s advice for those who are trying to figure out their next career moves.
[15:30] The importance of business relationships.
[18:01] The three core career marketing materials.
[19:41] Focus on outcomes.
[21:31] Tailoring messaging for the job you want next.
[26:26] As a job candidate, you’re a product and companies hiring are your customers.
[27:35] Researching companies before the interview.
[29:16] Anders Ericsson and the 10,000 hour rule.
[30:30] Using stories in interviews.
[34:09] Think like a lawyer when interviewing.
[39:16] How Sarah and her team work on projects.
[42:02] Where to find out more about Sarah and her work.
[43:27] Sarah’s last advice about career planning.

Links
Sarah on LinkedIn
Sarah’s website
Sarah on YouTube
Sarah on Instagram
Sarah on Medium
Sarah on Forbes
Sarah on Inside Design
Sarah on UX Magazine
Career Strategy Lab
Career Strategy Podcast
Sarah Doody on the democratization of UX and thinking like a designer
3 Signs Your Team Isn’t Doing Enough User Research
The NN/g UX Podcast: Designing a UX Career
The UX Growth Podcast, Season 2 Episode 12
People of Product: How to Finally Land a Job in UX

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UX + Design Teams with Nick Finck — DT101 E117
UX + Into, Through, and (Almost) Out of Design with Kara DeFrias — DT101 E103
UX Research + Research Teams + UX Camp DC with Glenette Clark — DT101 E80