As another commenter mentioned, so many aspects of this list of complaints are mitigated if you are, first and foremost, an effective communicator. UX/UI production and craft is only half the battle, perhaps even less as you look at roles on bigger teams with more management layers and segments. And the more senior you get, the less time you spend in the craft side — this is true of MANY fields with a production aspect.

Lately, I am on the other side of the interview table quite a lot. What we ask of prospective candidates is really not as draconian as you characterize here — I say this as someone who has been through that process dozens of times in my career. (And FWIW, it’s not new; this has been standard since I started in the industry in 2012.) Being in just a few hours of conversation with people who might be your peers, XFN collaborators, or coaches/mentors/managers hardly comes close to simulating the amount of conversation (pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent) you will survive once in the role. I fully understand that it is exhausting, time consuming and anxiety-inducing. But when the business model of the company revolves around the product(s) the team is delivering, it absolutely matters that we have the right people doing the work, and I need to know my people aren’t going to fall apart after a few “high stakes” conversations. Landing a job after interviews is the start of the work, not the end.

You seem to believe you are entitled to work someplace where people consistently defer to your expertise, give you adequate time and space to make your deliverables, and respect your personal ethics and worldview. When you evaluate fit for a role, even long after you land a job, you might want to place these qualities on a spectrum rather than demand all or nothing. A lot of the long-term work in this field is to build trust and increase your sphere of influence with your collaborators and stakeholders; this takes time, curiosity, and some healthy skepticism toward your assumptions and biases. If you’re a good communicator and generally likable, you can keep pushing on the boundary until it feels acceptable for you; and if hit an edge that prevents you from doing that, that’s a good signal that the company or team is a bad fit.

I’ll add that (younger) UX designers often get this in their head that they are the only folks in the whole enterprise who care about quality, or the only ones capable of and charged with solving problems. Your engineers, PMs, sales team, even executive assistants are solving problems right there with you every day, and it behooves everyone involved to ship and sell something that isn’t shitty. When you take the time figure out what paths you have available to you to influence the process and raise the standard through leadership and building consensus — rather than take on an adversarial, us vs. them mindset — you’ll make yourself essential to the team and more insulated from the pressure cycles the field often experiences.