OM DENNE EPISODE
What happens when your abilities extend far beyond the job title employers use to define you?
Mariel Sanchez began her career in psychology before moving into technology as a research assistant at Meta Reality Labs. She went on to become a UX researcher, helping teams understand people, identify unmet needs, and make better decisions.
After being laid off, Mariel spent more than nine months trying to return to the profession she had worked hard to build. She submitted approximately 60 applications a month, completed intensive interview processes, and used her savings while DoorDashing to pay her bills. Eventually, she decided to say a temporary goodbye to UX research and give an executive assistant role a genuine chance.
Her honest LinkedIn post about that decision resonated with hundreds of people worldwide.
In this episode, Mariel and Jess discuss the enormous unpaid effort required to search for work, the emotional consequences of rejection without feedback, and a hiring system optimized for familiar titles, linear careers, and exact previous experience.
Mariel also reflects on what happens when we separate our abilities from our professional identities. The skills she developed through research—recognizing problems, finding gaps, organizing complexity and improving how people experience systems—can create value far beyond the technology industry.
Beyond Titles is a conversation about surviving prolonged unemployment, questioning the promise of the linear career, and recognizing that leaving a profession does not mean leaving your capabilities behind.
Podcast Guest: Mariel Sanchez
Mariel Sanchez is a UX Researcher in the greater Seattle Area with over 6 years of experience, and her passion for research has allowed her to work on a variety of topics. From academic research touching on substance use in Latinx youth to body tracking in the virtual world.
Today, however, she learns to fight the instinct to ask questions and find answers where there may not be any yet. Navigating a 9-month layoff, the impact of AI on her career, and an environment full of opinions on what the next few years will look like, she sits in the unknown where uncertainty, as it turns out, has its own kind of momentum.
Connect with Mariel: Mariel Sanchez on LinkedIn
Check out Mariel’s work:
UX Research Portfolio: https://www.marielsr.com/
Post that led to 100s of outreach: https://lnkd.in/p/gHJdHPsc
Podcast Host: Jess Lowry
Jessica Lowry is the Founder and Socio-technical Systems Designer at ENID Studio, a collective of practitioners that enable organizations to redesign work, services, and governance for an AI-enabled future through participatory design and human-centered digital transformation.
Austin Women in Technology (AWT) mentor. Jess is also a founding member of Effective Immediately, a community for people building microbusinesses. Members get honest feedback, business fundamentals, and access to people a few steps ahead while they validate their idea, land first customers, and build the foundation.
Connect with Jess: Jess Lowry LinkedIn
Join Jess at Effective Immediately
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