The UX job market is rough right now. If your LinkedIn feed looks anything like Sarah's, you already know that. But while everyone is complaining about the market, almost nobody is focusing on the part of the job search they can actually control.
In this episode, Sarah breaks down why the job market feels so impossible right now, including the surprisingly outsized role that one-click apply has played in flooding recruiters with hundreds of applications per posting and what you can do about it. (Hint: The answer isn't more applications.)
Sarah shares real examples from inside the Career Strategy Lab community of how alumni are leveraging relationships to get referrals, introductions, and job offers, including one person whose hire two years ago has now led to four or five other alumni landing roles at the same company. The through-line is simple: the people who benefit most from their communities are the ones who actually show up in them.
Topics Discussed
✅ How the one-click apply button has made the job search harder for everyone and what that means for your strategy
✅ Why relationships matter more than ever in this job market, and why you need to start building them before you need them
✅ Why people say no to referral requests and how to change that
✅ Real examples of Career Strategy Lab alumni using community relationships to get referral links, introductions, and job offers
✅ How one hire two years ago has cascaded into multiple alumni landing roles at the same company
✅ The difference between existing in a community and actually participating in one
Links & Resources
🔗 Jared Spool: Why is the UX job market such a mess right now?
💸 See how you can get hired in UX with the help of my UX job search coaching program