Ask HN: Is the Generalist Dead?

Re:Ask HN: Is the Generalist Dead? by kalium-xyz on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @02:58PM (#23469584)

smaller companies need generalists, bigger companies need specialists. If you apply for a startup of a small dev shop, they would love to have you because they need people who can do things outside their discipline, they simply cannot or do not want to afford having one person every job.

What kind of experience do you have?

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Re:Ask HN: Is the Generalist Dead? by tawgeneralist on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @03:12PM (#23469740)

I apply exclusively to small companies, if a company has more than 20 employees I don't bother.

Typically they're hiring because they have some specific pain that the founder/CTO/person who wrote all the code lacks expertise in.

I have over a decade of experience of fielding phone calls from the CEO requesting a new feature by Monday, then delivering it to win a deal. I'm also good at getting on the phone with customers to find out what they need, then delivering that.

Finding a startup at the right stage seems to be pretty tough these days. There don't seem to be a lot of companies that are early enough to use my skills but are able to pay me actual money instead of equity.

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Re:Ask HN: Is the Generalist Dead? by salawat on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @03:04PM (#23469663)

What this guy said. Find a startup. You will never be happy in a mature company because you'll never have your full capabilities utilized. Learned it the hard way.

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