Joseph Louis Tan

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Stuck in UX career limbo? Here’s why.

I see this all the time:


A UX designer wants to level up, but they’re stuck.


Not because they aren’t learning.

Not because they aren’t trying.

But because they don’t know which skills to focus on.


Should they get better at UI?

Master research?

Learn AI?

Go into leadership?


The problem isn’t a lack of skills. It’s a lack of direction.


Here’s the hard truth:

📌 Not all UX skills are equally valuable for your next role.

📌 The best designers don’t learn everything—they go deep where it matters.


That’s why, when I coach designers, we do this first:


✅ Clarify their next career goal (Senior UX? Specialist? Leadership?)

✅ Identify the key skill gaps (What’s actually stopping them from getting hired?)

✅ Double down on the most valuable 1-2 skills (Instead of learning everything)


Example:

I worked with a designer who was trying to do it all—AI, coding, research, UI.

But what he actually needed? Stronger storytelling & business impact framing.


Once we fixed that? He started landing better interviews without learning a single new tool.


More skills don’t get you hired. The right skills do.


If you feel stuck in UX because you’re unsure what to focus on, DM me “GROWTH” and I’ll share the framework we use to clarify this.

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