What’s happening in the UX market
The user experience designer is expected to wear many hats, and it can be difficult to track down what exactly the job entails. Are you a user researcher, or are you basically a front-end developer who understands user psychology? Product mockups and prototypes, or team leader? All of those things. Above all else, UX employers seem to value your collaboration and communication skills. Obviously it’s important to be proficient with various UX tools such as Axure or Sketch or InvisionApp, but if you’re unpleasant to work with, can’t communicate the value of your research to stakeholders, or behind the times on trends and best practices, you are not going to be very successful in the workplace.
The majority of the jobs I found included mockups and wireframing in their desired skills, as well as competence in creation and analysis of user tests. Front-end proficiency is always encouraged, as being able to help take the load off your developers with a little help on the CSS is always a great way to make friends and influence people. Many made sure to specify responsive design as a desired skill. As the majority of the population moves to mobile browsing and app use, flexibility in our designs is more important then ever.
The titles may change, but the overall goals and tasks stay fairly consistent. Researchers, product designers, and experience architects were some titles that focused more on research and presentation, while the more vague designer designation included more web design, wireframes, mockups, and development tasks. Accessibility is not talked about very much even though it is hugely important. Facebook is the only employer I found looking for to hire someone to focus explicitly on accessibility.
Here are my 15 job postings and some key skills they were looking for:
1. Junior UX/info arch
https://icfi.taleo.net/careersection/icf_prof_ext/jobdetail.ftl?job=1600002965&src=JB-10080&apstr=&src=JB-10080&aasi=2
Create personas
Team collaboration
Content audits/maps
2. Web designer/ux/ui
HTML/CSS
Javascript/jQuery
UX principles
3. Junior UX designer
http://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=946251c8f648cc61&q=junior+ux&tk=1apdhl455512edb6&from=web
User testing and feedback
Responsive design
Prototyping
4. Junior/mid ux designer info arch
Scenarios/profiles/personas
Site maps
Leadership skills
5. Product Designer
https://jobs.onwardsearch.com/jobs/il-greater-chicago/user-experience/product-designer/6558
Agile and lean development skills
User research and analysis
Occasional front-end work — should be familiar with languages
Clickable prototypes
6. User Experience Designer
Wireframes and other visuals
Med-high fidelity mockups
7. UX Designer
https://jobs.onwardsearch.com/jobs/ma-greater-bos-northeast/user-experience/ux-designer/6490
Responsive web design
8. Senior Project Manager
Manage stakeholder expectations
Team leadership
Manage scope
9. UX Designer
https://jobs.onwardsearch.com/jobs/ma-greater-bos-northeast/user-experience/ux-designer/6352
Presentation skills
Multi-platform UX designs
10. Visual Designer
https://jobs.onwardsearch.com/jobs/ma-greater-bos-northeast/user-experience/visual-designer/6330
Recent design software
Sketches, mockups, wireframes
11. Interaction Designer
sketching/wireframing
12. User Researcher
https://jobs.onwardsearch.com/jobs/ma-greater-bos-northeast/user-experience/user-researcher/5700
Design studies
Recommending action
13. Digital Experience Architect
Mock9. UX Designer
https://jobs.onwardsearch.com/jobs/ma-greater-bos-northeast/user-experience/ux-designer/6352
Presentation skills
Multi-platform UX designs
10. Visual Designer
https://jobs.onwardsearch.com/jobs/ma-greater-bos-northeast/user-experience/visual-designer/6330
Recent design software
Sketches, mockups, wireframes
11. Interaction Designer
sketching/wireframing
ups
Understanding link between design and behavior
Interaction designs for web sites
14. UX Architect
Understand site movement and concepts
15. UX Researcher
Team collaboration
Multi-platform understanding
Protoypes
Test planning