Graphic Design and/or Web Design. Nothing but AI and recruiter nonsense these days.

I’m currently job hunting for the first time in >7 years, and things have changed so much… it’s honestly so damn demoralizing.

“Fundamental” is awfully subjective, though, isn’t it?

Do you have any recommendations?

Use Affinity Publisher, Photo, and Designer instead. Looks like it’s USD $165 for a universal license at the moment. Very few of the more exclusive features Adobe provides are worth the cost of doing business with them. The only thing I missed at first is Photoshop’s timeline, but apps like Krita or Aseprite (if pixel art is your jam) have that covered.

Edit to add: one great feature of Affinity is that, if you have Publisher and at least one of the other apps, Publisher will unify the workflows of the others into the same screen. In other words, you can switch between Publisher, Designer, and Photo without minimizing or opening the other apps individually.

Art and design, regardless of medium, need not be gatekept by corporate goons to stuff greedy pockets.