Making UX design famous

In the late 80′s,  as I was finishing school and choosing a career, the cool thing to go into was advertising. It seemed so exciting and exclusive, maybe because advertising people were so natural and unashamedly self-promoting.
20 years later, its has lost great part of the glamour. So what do kids want to be when they grow up nowadays?

If you read this blog you probably know I work with digital UX design, a field (and market) that has been growing steadily in size and strength, even during this long economy downturn. The strange thing is that it has been a silent growth.

Everyone uses digital products and services (like everyone used to enjoy watching creative ads), our clients certainly see a huge value in our work, but somehow UX design hasn’t become famous as a professional choice.

There is a lot of demand for talented interaction and visual interface designers, it pays well, and it’s damn interesting and creative work. So why is it under the radar?
I think we need to do a better job of communicating all this goodness to the mainstream. I’m just building upon a larger debate about defining what we do and finding talent, which has been going on in Europe.

How would you explain and sell a career in UX design to those bright young things (before they waste their talent somewhere else)?