Diversify skillset or double down on one?
Looking for some advice/new perspectives here. I've been a mobile/front-end developer for the last 5 years. Have never done backend work or marketing work. I would like to run my own tech company one day. I have been offered this opportunity to help grow a bootstrapped SaaS business as a growth hacker.
Should I take this marketing job or continue building coding skills?
Thanks in advance!
Hey andy,
I've been in your shoes some years ago. I have a computer science degree and used to work as a web developer. But I always knew I want to run my own business, so I eventually took a marketing job in a startup accelerator.
It was very difficult, I had no idea what I was doing, I spent my days working and my evenings & weekends learning about marketing and startups. But it was invaluable and I never regret it. Looking back it was one of the best career decisions of my life, because I was thrown into the world of business and marketing, which is super important if you want to run your own business.
Even if you have a cofounder who takes on marketing/sales, as an entrepreneur I think it is crucial to have some understanding of marketing/sales fundamentals. Products need to be built/designed so that they are easily marketable (Seth Godin talks about this in his book Purple Cow).
There's a good career advice article by Marc Andreessen (Founder of Netscape and one of the world's top VCs): https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_career_planning_part0.html. Among other great advice in that article, he also quotes Scott Adams:
Check the article for more context.
Hope this helps!
/m
Thank you! I've read that pmarca article before but not for a while. Good reminder to read it again. I think I know what the right decision is now. :)
I would say depends on your goals.
If you want to run your own tech company with a co-founder he may be able to do the marketing and business stuff while you focus on the technical side.
If you want to do everything on your own you will need a broad skill set and it would make a lot of sense to take this job.
Personally I would always go for the broad skill set because this way you aren't locked into the thing you specialized in and if you want to start a business by your own at some point you will need a broad skill set. BUT focusing and becoming an expert in something is better when you have people around you that cover the other tasks and are specialists in these and if you don't want to be a solo founder at some point.
Thank you!
Do both. Wholistic perspective is always better.
It's always about finding the good balance. Marketing is a very good skill to have, but watch out that it doesn't label you too much. If you spend next 5 years doing full-time marketing, the fast-moving frontend world has probably left you with deprecated skills if you want to go back to coding some day.
Thank you!
As business owner, diversity in skills is important imo. Marketing is really important skill for any type of business.
Thank you!