Getting a UX Job is Not Easy in This Economy

Yeah, I know, could I make a more obvious statement with the kind of unemployment rates we've been having? But from the job postings I've been looking at, I think it's more than just that. There aren't just less jobs, but the jobs there are like super jobs: one position that's meant to cover a wide range of things.

Take this one for example. The job title is Information Architect, but look at all the other things they're expecting from the position:

• Usability Studies
• Personas
• User Flows
• Wireframes
• Affinity Diagrams
• HTML and CSS expertise
• Photoshop, Illustrator experience
• Flash/Silverlight experience

No wonder they expect 5 years experience. They've shoved about 5 different jobs into one position. And that's not even close to being the only job description I've seen that tries to do that. It's like they're all hoping that someone that's done at least one of these things for 5 years should have it down cold enough to juggle them all reasonable competently.

Am I just complaining because I can't find a job (yes), or is it actually an issue? Well, allow me to let Morville and Rosenfeld explain:

"... The information architect ideally should be responsible solely for the site's architecture, not for its other aspects. It can be overly distracting to have to deal with other, more tangible aspects of the site, such as its graphic identity or programming. In that case, the site's architecture can easily, if unintentionally, get relegated to second-class status because you'll be concentrating, naturally, on the more visible and tangible stuff."