Career Strategy Podcast with Sarah Doody | UX, Product Design, UX Research 162 - How Erica Got Hired as a UX Officer at WK Kellogg Foundation After a CDC Layoff
Erica Jiminez went from facing a potential layoff at the CDC to landing her dream role as the first-ever User Experience Officer at WK Kellogg Foundation. In this episode, Sarah Doody chats with Erica about her experience in Sarah's UX job search coaching program, Career Strategy Lab.
Erica shares how she got clear on what she wanted, made sense of a non-linear career path, and landed a mission-driven UX role.
Erica talks about how the Career Roadmap and Compass Statement in Career Strategy Lab helped her shift from a fear mindset to clarity, why her "messy" career path across social work, public health, and UX research actually became her biggest strength, and how she got hired using a whiteboard and Mural board instead of a polished portfolio. She also shares why she negotiated her salary and got what she asked for, and what hiring managers actually look for when multiple candidates are equally qualified.
Erica's 3 lessons from her UX job search:
1) Follow what you're passionate about
2) Go for it even if you're not ready
3) Know your worth and advocate for yourself — the worst they can say is no
Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
1:00 Meet Erica, the first UX Officer at WK Kellogg Foundation
3:00 The career roadmap: realizing how unintentional her career had been
4:30 From social worker to UX researcher — a 12-year non-linear path
5:00 Seeing the story in a "messy" resume
7:00 The Product of You: Design yourself before marketing yourself
8:00 Getting clarity vs. jumping straight to tactics
10:00 The Gumby mindset & reframing your experiences
12:00 Lesson 1: Follow what you're passionate about
13:00 Lesson 2: Go for it even if you're not ready 15:00
Lesson 3: Know your worth & salary negotiation
17:00 The heroes exercise & discovering what matters beyond UX
19:30 Applying UX skills beyond big tech
20:00 Advice for anyone on the fence about Career Strategy Lab
22:00 Why the human element matters most in hiring
💸 See how I help UX & Product people get 5-figure salary increases in my UX job search coaching program