Something I've been advocating for a while to UX people fresh out of school is that the design bit of their job is really the easiest and least important part o

Something I've been advocating for a while to UX people fresh out of school is that the design bit of their job is really the easiest and least important part of what they do. UX is about process which means it's about navigating politics and procuring buy-in and being able to communicate across a broad range of cultures. If you're the only one championing the message of usability & design, then you might get some limited short term success but you will inevitably leave and things will decay back into the ground state. Instead, the correct goal for a UX person should be to instill a culture of usability within a company and act as a facilitator for the people who are building the products. University HCI courses emphasize the technical skills almost exclusively because that's what they're good at but what they end up doing is graduating a bunch of bright, talented people who unfortunately don't have the temperament to play the office politics necessary.