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My advice to University students: find something that engages you. Do that to nearly the exclusion of everything else. Become one of the most enthusiastic knowl

My advice to University students: find something that engages you. Do that to nearly the exclusion of everything else. Become one of the most enthusiastic knowledgeable people in that field. Being a generalist will get you some kind of job, sure. But being good at something in particular can get you further.

fakedang 3y ago
I think a better formula would be to become a generalist, and then specialize in one thing deeply. Talking from experience within my circle of friends, the guys who specialized well ended up getting FAANG level jobs, but the guys who were "generalized specialists" were building great companies - doing what they wanted to do. If ever their passion company were to fail, they could always take comfort in being a generalist and hence being employable still (one of my friends is currently going through this stage after his well-funded startup crashed). A specialist would not be easily able to take that kind of monumental risk so easily.
- notsurenymore 3y ago
  I’m still trying to figure out how one becomes a “generalized specialist”. I would seem that once you establish yourself as a generalist, it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve specialization.
  - xorbax 3y ago
    I think a better formula would be economic rather than philosophical: find a job that pays a lot of money whether you like it or not, then establish your career in something you're passionate about regardless of how lucrative it is It's a fun style of advice-giving
    - notsurenymore 3y ago
      > then establish your career in something you're passionate about regardless of how lucrative it is Yeah this is the part I’m stuck at. You can’t just “establish your career in something you’re passionate about”, lucrative or not.
  - kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago
    Think of it this way: good at everything, great at this one thing. It takes time and dedication, generally outside work hours.
    - notsurenymore 3y ago
      My experience is no one gives a shit if it happens outside of work hours. Maybe if you can establish yourself to pseudo-celebrity status within the particular niche?
      - kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago
        No no, hone your skills outside of work, but use them at work.
        notsurenymore 3y ago
        But there’s still the problem. If you established you career doing X and you’re preferred niche is Y, you aren’t going to get to use Y at work because it’s simply irrelevant to you’re career doing X. Let’s say in a run of the mill enterprise web developer, but I have an interest in a particular niche, say low level network programming or game development. I can hone my skills in the latter all I want, but I’ll never get the chance use them at my day job and I’ll never get a job working in that nice because they’re only interested in already established professional experts.
        fakedang 3y ago
        I'll put it another way. Leadership skills and communication skills are mostly a generalized skillset, but they're pretty important in any job, however specialized it is. Financial management is a skill that's kind of generic and commodities, but still important and definitely buildable if you want to start a company.
- idrios 3y ago
  A generalist is better for starting a company because they can just get all the parts moving themselves, or pick up wherever the slack is. A specialist can get a specific and better paid job at a bigger company. As a generalist you risk never getting anything off the ground, and being useless to people hiring because what they want is the specialist. As a specialist you risk your specialization becoming obsolete, leaving you with nothing. You also risk picking an oversaturated specialization, or one that leaves you in a dead end role that pays less and less over time. I think the job market for software developers is so much different now than it was, say, 8 years ago, that I'd probably advocate for becoming a specialist over a generalist. Getting your first job and making those initial connections will help you immensely in your career. But it's a tough call, both paths are very difficult and either way can work out if you're very persistent. And whichever path you choose is more likely to introduce you to like-minded people
willis936 3y ago
I'm a generalist with a specialty. I'm paid to move fast as a generalist and no one gives a hoot about my specialty. My day-to-day would be much more comfortable if I were paid to flex my specialty.
deafpolygon 3y ago
Specialization is for insects.
conception 3y ago
Counterpoint- becoming the best in a field is nearly impossible. Even the top 10% is incredibly difficult. Being the best of knowing two fields… surprisingly easy. Eg Becoming the a top Software Engineer? Difficult. Becoming one of the world’s best at Civic Engineering software engineering or Financial Accounting Software Development? Probably pretty doable.

fakedang 3y ago

I think a better formula would be to become a generalist, and then specialize in one thing deeply. Talking from experience within my circle of friends, the guys who specialized well ended up getting FAANG level jobs, but the guys who were "generalized specialists" were building great companies - doing what they wanted to do. If ever their passion company were to fail, they could always take comfort in being a generalist and hence being employable still (one of my friends is currently going through this stage after his well-funded startup crashed). A specialist would not be easily able to take that kind of monumental risk so easily.

notsurenymore 3y ago
I’m still trying to figure out how one becomes a “generalized specialist”. I would seem that once you establish yourself as a generalist, it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve specialization.
- xorbax 3y ago
  I think a better formula would be economic rather than philosophical: find a job that pays a lot of money whether you like it or not, then establish your career in something you're passionate about regardless of how lucrative it is It's a fun style of advice-giving
  - notsurenymore 3y ago
    > then establish your career in something you're passionate about regardless of how lucrative it is Yeah this is the part I’m stuck at. You can’t just “establish your career in something you’re passionate about”, lucrative or not.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago
  Think of it this way: good at everything, great at this one thing. It takes time and dedication, generally outside work hours.
  - notsurenymore 3y ago
    My experience is no one gives a shit if it happens outside of work hours. Maybe if you can establish yourself to pseudo-celebrity status within the particular niche?
    - kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago
      No no, hone your skills outside of work, but use them at work.
      - notsurenymore 3y ago
        But there’s still the problem. If you established you career doing X and you’re preferred niche is Y, you aren’t going to get to use Y at work because it’s simply irrelevant to you’re career doing X. Let’s say in a run of the mill enterprise web developer, but I have an interest in a particular niche, say low level network programming or game development. I can hone my skills in the latter all I want, but I’ll never get the chance use them at my day job and I’ll never get a job working in that nice because they’re only interested in already established professional experts.
        fakedang 3y ago
        I'll put it another way. Leadership skills and communication skills are mostly a generalized skillset, but they're pretty important in any job, however specialized it is. Financial management is a skill that's kind of generic and commodities, but still important and definitely buildable if you want to start a company.
idrios 3y ago
A generalist is better for starting a company because they can just get all the parts moving themselves, or pick up wherever the slack is. A specialist can get a specific and better paid job at a bigger company. As a generalist you risk never getting anything off the ground, and being useless to people hiring because what they want is the specialist. As a specialist you risk your specialization becoming obsolete, leaving you with nothing. You also risk picking an oversaturated specialization, or one that leaves you in a dead end role that pays less and less over time. I think the job market for software developers is so much different now than it was, say, 8 years ago, that I'd probably advocate for becoming a specialist over a generalist. Getting your first job and making those initial connections will help you immensely in your career. But it's a tough call, both paths are very difficult and either way can work out if you're very persistent. And whichever path you choose is more likely to introduce you to like-minded people

willis936 3y ago

I'm a generalist with a specialty. I'm paid to move fast as a generalist and no one gives a hoot about my specialty. My day-to-day would be much more comfortable if I were paid to flex my specialty.

deafpolygon 3y ago

Specialization is for insects.

conception 3y ago

Counterpoint- becoming the best in a field is nearly impossible. Even the top 10% is incredibly difficult. Being the best of knowing two fields… surprisingly easy. Eg Becoming the a top Software Engineer? Difficult. Becoming one of the world’s best at Civic Engineering software engineering or Financial Accounting Software Development? Probably pretty doable.