Скачать или смотреть How Marcus Got Hired as a UX Researcher After Six Months of Rejection

After getting laid off from his UX role at eBay, Marcus spent 6 months applying to jobs. With each rejection, or no response at all, his confidence slipped and he became more frustrated with his UX job search. He wasn’t sure how to talk about his work as a UX researcher, let alone stand out in a competitive job market. When his severance and unemployment ran out, the pressure was on and what worked in previous UX job searchers wasn’t working anymore.

That’s when Marcus joined Career Strategy Lab's UX job search accelerator, and everything shifted. He stopped job searching alone and finally got a clear roadmap for how to tell his story as a UX researcher. He reworked his UX portfolio to focus on outcomes, not deliverables. He built real connections, including one that led to a referral and an eventual offer at Nava, a mission-driven consultancy where he now works on federal UX projects with the Department of Justice.

In this episode, Marcus shares about what it’s like to lose confidence in your skills, how community helped him stop second-guessing every move, and why applying the principles of UX to his own job search helped him land a role that feels meaningful again.

00:00 – Intro: Why referrals aren't just links
01:45 – Marcus’s background and layoff from eBay
03:20 – The turning point: Joining Career Strategy Lab
05:00 – How one authentic relationship led to a referral
06:45 – Portfolio transformation: From artifacts to storytelling
08:20 – Confidence through action (not waiting)
10:10 – Power of community and mindset support
11:30 – Marcus’s advice for new CSL members