> Well-run organizations -- that is, organizations that can afford to pay good money for talent -- have clearly defined roles for people, and need only a few ge

> Well-run organizations -- that is, organizations that can afford to pay good money for talent -- have clearly defined roles for people, and need only a few generalists to handle the nitty-gritties of cross-department communications and management. > The organizations that most need generalists are the ones that are constantly struggling to get their crap working right, so they need people who can do a little bit of everything, and as a consequence, they also can't afford to pay such people a lot of money. > It is much easier for a specialist to argue their value than a generalist. Yes, but... when these organizations need to staff a small weird project or straighten out a mess, they often hire a consultant. Consultants get paid a lot of money and their work changes frequently. This is a great place to be if you're a "wildcard". You can work for yourself (high risk, high ceilings on pay, lots of sales time) or a consultancy (low risk to you, modest employer risk, lower ceilings on your pay, little sales time). If you have to market yourself as a "wildcard", remember that just like you never want to be a "programmer who can do X", you want to be an "X who can program", so it goes with being a generalist. No one really wants to hire someone who doesn't have some specific talent. So you're a "generalist X", not just a "generalist". (Probably, hopefully, you do have some area or other of more-detailed knowledge!)