10 must-have UX skills that will guarantee you land your dream job

The profession we now know as user experience design has emerged relatively recently, although it has existed for a long time it wasn’t well defined. It’s one with hard-to-define skills needed to master it. People from various backgrounds work in this field: visual designers, psychologists, developers, architects — basically anybody.

No single well-defined pathway leads to a career in UX. This results from UX being an umbrella term comprising various jobs and tasks. This means employers have different needs as well when they look for employees.

These 10 skills will ensure that you land your dream job, no matter the requirements.

1) Communication Skills

Let’s kick it off with a Venn diagram. It explains the role of UX and how it’s not a field in itself.

Not only does it highlight the multidisciplinary nature of UX, but it also shows that most of the time the UXer forms the medium between other fields, often with conflicting purposes. Handling this tension requires very strong communication skills. Other communication-heavy tasks like presenting results, workshops, conducting interviews, or even selling yourself (for all you freelancers and “between jobs” people out there) benefit from improved communication skills.

2) Analytical Skills

This is an essential one when dealing with data. Empathy and intuition help little when facing the raw numbers of Google Analytics. Data has an increasing say when it comes to product development and marketing, making the ability to set up proper KPIs and to extract information from data invaluable.

3) Visual Design Skills

Working in the UX field doesn’t necessarily require excellent visual design skills; however, it certainly does give an advantage, especially if you have experience in designing user interfaces. You need to understand typographical rules, color theory, visual hierarchy, as well as being on top of…