UX Career Coaching & Career Strategy

After more than two decades in UX Research and Product Design, I know the hardest part of advancing your UX career isn’t doing the work, it’s communicating the value of that work.

Proving your value as a UX professional to your boss, team, stakeholders, or recruiters and hiring managers is hard. Most of us weren’t taught to be our own cheerleader and advocate.

I’ve been doing UX career coaching since 2017 and I’m constantly testing and refining my approach based on what’s working for people who get hired.

A few places my clients have been hired:

2024 & 2025 UX career coaching data

I get it, you work in UX, you’re detail oriented, and you want data. I want data too so I can improve my approach and outcomes for my career coaching & strategy clients.

Average salary increase:

5 figures

32% hired within:

3 months

35% hired within:

6 months

Negotiated higher salary:

67%

My philosophy and approach to UX career coaching

I believe the most important product you will work on is you.

In your career, companies hire you to do a job, just like you hire products to do jobs for you – similar to the jobs to be done framework. So, if your career is a product, then isn’t it time you started to treat it like one?

I refer to this philosophy as, The Product of You, which is also the name of my book.

After more than two decades in UX research and product design, I’ve learned every great product needs 3 strategies to succeed, and the same applies to your career:

A Design Strategy
Know where you’re headed and your unique features and benefits.
A Marketing Strategy
Be visible to and top of mind in the eyes of recruiters, hiring managers, your boss, etc.
A Sales Strategy
Know how to connect and have authentic relationships can leverage when needed

Most UX career coaching focuses on the Marketing strategy with re-writing to your resume, polishing your portfolio, and updating your LinkedIn profile.

But, if you Market a product before you’re clear on its Design, then it’s impossible for the marketing to be effective. And, there will always be a disconnect between the product’s true features, benefits and the prospective customer’s perception of them.

If you’re not clear, or confident, in the Design of YOU as a candidate, then no amount of resume, portfolio, and LinkedIn tweaking will help you get your next job.

My approach to career coaching is designed to help you:

Identify, communicate, and believe your unique features and benefits – what makes you qualified, unique, and huge asset to your next team or company.
Create a resume, portfolio, and LinkedIn presence that don’t undersell your features and benefits, and that bring the right people and opportunities to you.
Leverage relationships before, during and after interviews so you can connect – because people like doing business with people they connect with.

Common challenges UX professionals face in their careers

And, with a little UX and strategy, we can solve your UX career struggles.

Solving career problems, starts with identifying and understanding the root causes of the problems and challenges. Because I say all the time, you can’t design a solution until you understand the problem.

This is where I come in. You are too close to your situation. You can’t the big picture because you’re caught in the weeds of your career situation.

I’ll give you the tools to identify and understand the root problems in your UX career so you can stop spending your time and energy on things that are not moving you closer toward your UX career goals, such as re-doing your UX portfolio or resume for the fifth time.

Here are some of the common career challenges UX professionals come to me with:

Title or Salary Plateau

You’ve been stuck at the same title or salary for years.

Role Confusion

Unsure if you should move into leadership, IC, or something else.

Specialist or Generalist

Decide what to focus on or if you can find a home for your generalist skills.

Plot Your Next Chapter

Worked in UX for a while and struggling to figure out what’s next.

Portfolio & Resume

Haven’t update your resume or portfolio in years, or are sick of redoing them.

Layoff Recovery

Dealing with confidence, burnout, and confusion associated with a layoff.

How career coaching with me works

The power of 1:1 career coaching in a group setting.

I used to offer 1:1 career coaching but quickly realized it has many downfalls:

Isolation: After the call ends, you’re left alone without support. That’s when spiraling and second-guessing creep in.
Overthinking: Without continuous feedback, you get stuck in your own head overanalyzing instead of taking action.
Procrastination: Advice without accountability often turns into “I’ll get to it later,” which slows down your entire job search.

So, as a UX researcher, I ran an experiment. I put UX job seekers together in community, and something awesome happened.

Instead of spiraling alone, they started executing faster, building momentum, and even helping each other get hired, just like this:

This is why I now offer UX career coaching in a group program, called Career Strategy Lab, because it creates:

Clarity: You get feedback and perspective from peers who understand your challenges, so you stop overthinking and start moving forward.
Accountability: You don’t just leave with advice, you stay connected to people who expect to see you take action.
Momentum: Every time someone lands interviews or gets hired, it sparks energy and opportunity for everyone else, sometimes even direct job referrals.

That’s the power of combining personalized coaching with a community of 750+ alumni who work in awesome UX and Product roles at companies around the world.

How UX Career Coaching helps you stand out in the job market

The UX job market is crowded, and most candidates look and sound the same. They lead with deliverables, not decision-making. They talk about tasks, not outcomes. And that’s why even talented senior professionals end up feeling invisible.

Career coaching helps you break that cycle by showing you how to:

Position your experience so it’s clear, compelling, and aligned with the roles you want.

Communicate your impact in a way that resonates with recruiters, hiring managers, and executives.

Tell your story with confidence — in your portfolio, resume, LinkedIn, and interviews.

Focus your energy strategically so you stop wasting time applying to hundreds of roles that don’t fit.

Instead of underselling yourself or hoping your work “speaks for itself,” you’ll stand out as the candidate who brings clarity, confidence, and leadership potential.

A few success stories from my UX career coaching clients

Laura got hired in 2.5 months with 1 project in her UX portfolio

In this interview with Laura, hear how she got hired as a Principal Product Designer with just 1 project in her portfolio.

And, the role she was hired for found her – the CEO sent her a DM after he found her on LinkedIn.

Manny got hired as a Sr UX Designer at Fidelity in only 77 days

After a layoff, Manny’s UX job search hit a wall. He spent weeks spinning in circles, tweaking his resume, second-guessing his UX portfolio, and applying to jobs that led to nowhere.

After getting help with his UX job search, Manny got hired in 77 days at Fidelity.

Jane got hired as a Principal UX Researcher in 2.5 months with no professional network

Jane worried her 8 years of experience doing UX research in China wouldn’t be taken seriously in the US.

Despite these obstacles, she got hired at Whole Foods in 2.5 months, for a role higher than she applied for!

Fritz got hired in 89 days at Amazon after a previous 2-year job search on his own

Fritz spent 2 years job searching after being laid off, stuck in a cycle of rejection and self-doubt.

After getting UX career coaching from me, he rebuilt his confidence, refined his portfolio and resume, and land a leadership role at Amazon in just 89 days.