Re:Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
by BrandoElFollito on Saturday February 15, 2020 @03:38PM
(#22337806)
Point 3 is a good one, I would just aim at \pi rather than T, just in case.
Re:Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
by benji-york on Sunday February 16, 2020 @07:11AM
(#22341193)
How about jellyfish-shaped?
I.e., T-shaped with many descenders of various length.
Re:Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
by BrandoElFollito on Sunday February 16, 2020 @10:04AM
(#22341834)
Yes, this is very good too. Make it a strong tripod with accessory legs and it is perfect.
Re:Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
by ahane on Sunday February 16, 2020 @02:41PM
(#22343361)
how about semi-colon shaped https://breakingsmart.substack.com/p/semicolon-shaped-people
Re:Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
by shifto on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @04:41AM
(#22354688)
I second this. I was a sysadmin turned devops engineer at a small software company (100/150 employees) for 8 years. Basically the longest employed employee at that point. Knew everything about our systems, infra, software, customers etc. Thought I had a pretty good grasp on what I did.
Got bored after 8 years and now work for a big company as a DBA, and man, I knew so little in hindsight. Having sysadmin knowledge does make working with other teams (like infra) much easier as I feel they respect me more than another colleague but I definitely got put in my place (and love it here!).
Also specializing on databases satisfies me a lot because I feel I'm really grasping the entire tech for real this time and not just the surface.
I thought the same, that I was a generalist and I did also enjoy the variety. But a couple of things:
1) while I thought I was proficient in everything I actually wasn’t. When I went to a big company where I focused on a specific area is when I discovered how little I knew about the topic and how shallow my knowledge was.
2) I discovered that I enjoyed diving into a specific area and being a specialist there was also fun. Gave me a different kind of rush and ego boost, knowing I can solve deeper technical problems in a specific area.
3) you can’t be both broad and deep in everything. Best is probably aim for a T shaped skill set.
I guess short version is, maybe give specializing a go. You might discover that it’s both enjoyable and sets you up well professionally.