I know that skills of an embedded designer depend on the field he/she is active in. but sure there are a few essential skills. if want to advise some one who is about to be an ebedded designer and trying to find a decent job ,what are you advices for him/her??

what are thoes basic skills ?
basic analog and digital designe? 8 bit MCUs? Programming in C? ,deifferent sensors? interfacing with PC, communication protocols?,...

what are extra skills which may help him/her to get a better job?
other MCU archtectures? ,16 or 32 bit architectures?(ARM ,new PICs), DSP? ,VHDL-CPLD-FPGA or maybe they are essential? or PLC maybe?

what skills do you recommend that are not related to electronics?

thank you ,
Koosha