Does being a generalist over a specialist = career suicide?
Hi All,
It goes without saying that since the Industrial revolution, work and roles have gotten more and more specialized. I'd say even hyper-specialized within the last 20 years or so. Many have argued that the future belongs to the generalists, but what about the present?
Are those that ride the line between creative and technical just screwed?
NO. Being a generalist, and straddling the line, is awesome. Companies worth their salt get it and hire those people and advance them.
Within the software world, in my observation there are a couple tricky bits that can lead people into a trap:
If you're an engineer, at the lower levels all you're expected to do is write the code and make sure the tests pass. But at higher levels you also have to mentor people (maybe even mentor the mentors), handle budgets, hiring/firing, control spend on tools, and make long-term architectural decisions. So naturally a wider skillset is needed at the top. Enter the generalist.
But I see good news, too. I think there are ways to short circuit what companies want and avoid the trap.
Trick 1: Functions that are friendly to generalists. Product management and program management, among others, are roles that function well with a generalist in place. I have limited sales experience, but maybe even sales engineering is similar? Pure engineering, analytics, QA... these things are specific.
Trick 2: You can acquire one skill on paper to get the foot in the door. A certification is a great way to short that circuit. AWS, PMP, whatever the thing that matches your tool or field. It reassures a hiring manager that they know what they're getting, even if you're more of a generalist.
Trick 3: They're harder to find, but people do excel when they're given the opportunity to cross between creative and technical. If you're Creative with a capital C, then I would hope that Design as a discipline affords you opportunities. Personally, I followed Trick 2, acquired one skill, and have thrived in using that skill to do better than others in crossing between business and technical audiences.
So I won't even say "have faith." I'll say "congrats" now on being a generalist, even if the rewards haven't arrived yet.
@blakerson Very nice! I must really be doing something wrong or I just haven't found the right fit yet. It's been a slow grind transitioning from solopreneur to bootstrapped startup.
I bet transitioning to a bootstrapped startup is a slow grind for almost anyone, regardless of your specialties.
But as most people here seem to agree, you have to be a bit of a generalist to be a solopreneur or small-business-managing person. Putting aside needing to manage all the "boring" stuff like marketing, sales (which can be super fun, too!), you also need to know how to approach your product with many perspectives, and that requires at least a degree of generalization.
But ultimately, I would say it's a bit of both. You need to find your niche, obviously, to "make it" as an IH, so you need to at least somewhat specialize in that area. But you need to handle everything around your product, so you need to be a generalist to deal with it all.
For me, as a generalist and 20+ years into my career, I've found that there are many roles I can fit into, but I won't be the best at any of them. This has frustrated me in past employment for large companies because I've worked with people in the same role that were much better at it than me. But now I see that having broad experience and training has prepared me well for being autonomous and creating a specialized career path, such as being an entrepreneur.
@mashdog nailed it whereas I'm taking the risk of going after my IH lifestyle while giving up years of traditional career advancement and a steady paycheck. It would be challenging for me to go back to employment now as my skills in my former careers are getting rusty.
Great response! Thank you
No -- it doesn't matter whether a person is a generalist or a specialist. It only matters that their work creates value. People who can't figure out how to create value are screwed.
If you're running your own startup or side project, I'd argue that you don't even have a choice in the matter. You MUST be a generalist in order to survive.
Definitely not. In fact, I think it's essential for a good foundation to any career.
I personally spent the first 10 years of my career as a generalist. I had several companies and was necessarily involved in all aspects of it. I wrote code in multiple languages. I think it gave me a good base and perspective that afforded me many opportunities later. I would highly recommend getting experience with a lot of different tools, languages, system, writing, management, sales, and other business skills earlier in your career.
The next 10+ years of my career has been spent developing a specialist as a Ruby developer. I don't think I could have done or could have advanced this far with it had I not had the broad array of experience with other skills prior. Plus, my personal job satisfaction has risen now that I've developed an expertise in one particular area of our field. I feel like I'm able to contribute more value with both a specific expertise plus a wide array of generalist experience.
I'm a pretty extreme generalist.
I've worked as a painter (my own business, with 9 employees), a bartender, a math tutor an English teacher, a curriculum designer, a manager of a language school, a biz dev guy, head of HR for a tiny startup, a translator, a front-end programmer, a back-end programmer a writer and as a tech founder.
All in all, I'd agree with you that there is a cost. Other than the marketing and writing, very few of my earlier skills were worth anything in the software industry. Especially at the large-ish unicorn where I worked, they really wanted us to have narrow roles and it didn't feel like I was learning much after the first few months.
On the other hand, as an entrepreneur, it's great to be a generalist! I can build software, deploy it, market it, write about it and localize it (for some projects). Early on, you don't really need any specialists, but you do need to be able to at least cover each necessary function at a minimal level. Being a generalist helps a lot in that situation, especially if you're a solo founder.
Not at all. If your skillset encompasses areas that can provide value to other individuals or businesses then it could well be the opposite. One example (that I've conjured up based on your bio) is that if you could build a tool which was aimed at DB developers, but which had a killer UI, then you could perhaps get enough of a fanbase for a profitable business.
There is a lot of context here but surely those that can combine technical with creative are going to have huge advantages in lots of areas.
"career suicide" is a different term, but to me if you are going down the IH route then you are taking a calculated risk of improving your chosen lifestyle (money, time etc) based on opting out of a traditional career. What makes the IH lifestyle unique is that many experienced tech people would likely be able to get another job if they chose to.
Great insight and very well written. Thank you!
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Congrats!