3 ms·

I've had a lot of trouble with hiring lately due to being a generalist. I've spent 10 years as a developer but not more than 2-3 at a time in a specific "stack.

I've had a lot of trouble with hiring lately due to being a generalist. I've spent 10 years as a developer but not more than 2-3 at a time in a specific "stack." This has hurt me more times than I can remember. However, I've built amazing things for amazing companies when I do get jobs. I've architected and built end-to-end products by myself and within teams. A few projects I've worked on: a web scraping product, data labeling software for machine learning, commercial eyetracking software, a custom learning management system, machine learning models from scratch, high volume image processing, etc. In each of these projects too I did end-to-end work. Development, deployment, infrastructure, ops. Each one of these products though was with a different stack. JS, C#, Clojure, C++, Java, Python, the list goes on. Common feedback I've received is that I'm not experienced enough to deliver in a role. Anecdotally, engineers that I talk to where I'm located have spent their entire careers using only JS, building Next.js sites or whatever the current hotness is. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does seem like the landscape has shifted to the specialists.

garciasn 3y ago
I don't have trouble, but companies are very leery of hiring someone who is VERY wide and only somewhat deep. Being I'm a director-level hire, many companies assume I have only led teams that do this work and I'm trying to take credit for their depth in specialized areas, not realizing that I absolutely can and do operate across that wide swath of expertise. I try to use the successes I have cultivated at multiple organizations in the past with this experience as evidence, but even after hire, most organizations take ~6 months to realize I'm not too good to be true; it's part of why I end up getting promoted a few times in relatively rapid succession at each gig. I find that working at smaller companies (~125), they idealize those who can wear many hats, whereas companies that are large enterprises do not and are much less likely to hire someone who can do it all, favoring--instead--those who are very deep and narrow. I have carved out a successful niche in the digital marketing space with the experience and success I've had and I will likely continue to do so, helping those same large enterprises who would likely pass me over for a FTE role, but happy to hire me via a consulting firm to solve the very same problems while paying much more for the pleasure.
- jwindle47 3y ago
  Valuable advice. I've found the same w.r.t. working at a small company versus an enterprise. I think I'm in the niche carving stage of my career but I have no idea how to sell myself. I'm in the same boat, I can and do operate across that wide swathe of experience as well. It's been feeling lately like I'm at a crossroads, I either settle down and "specialize" by picking a stack and an "area," or I build my own product.
  - al_borland 3y ago
    I think the sales pitch of the generalist is that they can draw from multiple disciplines to bring in new ideas, or make connections, that the specialist can’t do. The generalist can more easily see the big picture, because they have experience in all the parts that makeup that picture. That means fewer blind spots and unforeseen issues late in the game.
- ghaff 3y ago
  It's all a tradeoff as there are only so many hours in the day. I was an IT industry analyst for about a decade and basically brought that background to an internal vendor role. On the one hand, the company I was with valued a broader perspective. On the other hand, get too broad and you risk getting into shallower trade press takes where some writers have heard various terms and memes but don't have any real deeper understanding of most things. So it ends up being about developing legitimate expertise on certain related topics while having some conversational familiarity with others--and maybe just admitting you don't have more than a very surface understanding of still others.
- mp05 3y ago
  You nailed it my sentiments exactly. And funny, I keep thinking that I'll land in marketing at some point myself. They don't want to admit it, but your average "digital marketer" with no formal education in math or statistics really has no business trying to understand their audience.
- ozim 3y ago
  We have a lot to do „thanks to” all the guys that are BSing. I myself also consider generalist with quite a lot of success ranging from improving code performance in .NET and MS SQL to setting up whole servers with AD and best practices to technical hiring. But I saw maybe one other or 2 really like that. Other 20 or something „technical generalists” were business people hustling to be managers trying to look technical or outright scammers trying to loook like they can do everything but then delivering nothing. It usually takes around 6 months to uncover the guy that is BS then another 6 months to convince manager guy knows shit and we have to fire him asap.

garciasn 3y ago

I don't have trouble, but companies are very leery of hiring someone who is VERY wide and only somewhat deep. Being I'm a director-level hire, many companies assume I have only led teams that do this work and I'm trying to take credit for their depth in specialized areas, not realizing that I absolutely can and do operate across that wide swath of expertise. I try to use the successes I have cultivated at multiple organizations in the past with this experience as evidence, but even after hire, most organizations take ~6 months to realize I'm not too good to be true; it's part of why I end up getting promoted a few times in relatively rapid succession at each gig. I find that working at smaller companies (~125), they idealize those who can wear many hats, whereas companies that are large enterprises do not and are much less likely to hire someone who can do it all, favoring--instead--those who are very deep and narrow. I have carved out a successful niche in the digital marketing space with the experience and success I've had and I will likely continue to do so, helping those same large enterprises who would likely pass me over for a FTE role, but happy to hire me via a consulting firm to solve the very same problems while paying much more for the pleasure.

jwindle47 3y ago
Valuable advice. I've found the same w.r.t. working at a small company versus an enterprise. I think I'm in the niche carving stage of my career but I have no idea how to sell myself. I'm in the same boat, I can and do operate across that wide swathe of experience as well. It's been feeling lately like I'm at a crossroads, I either settle down and "specialize" by picking a stack and an "area," or I build my own product.
- al_borland 3y ago
  I think the sales pitch of the generalist is that they can draw from multiple disciplines to bring in new ideas, or make connections, that the specialist can’t do. The generalist can more easily see the big picture, because they have experience in all the parts that makeup that picture. That means fewer blind spots and unforeseen issues late in the game.
ghaff 3y ago
It's all a tradeoff as there are only so many hours in the day. I was an IT industry analyst for about a decade and basically brought that background to an internal vendor role. On the one hand, the company I was with valued a broader perspective. On the other hand, get too broad and you risk getting into shallower trade press takes where some writers have heard various terms and memes but don't have any real deeper understanding of most things. So it ends up being about developing legitimate expertise on certain related topics while having some conversational familiarity with others--and maybe just admitting you don't have more than a very surface understanding of still others.
mp05 3y ago
You nailed it my sentiments exactly. And funny, I keep thinking that I'll land in marketing at some point myself. They don't want to admit it, but your average "digital marketer" with no formal education in math or statistics really has no business trying to understand their audience.
ozim 3y ago
We have a lot to do „thanks to” all the guys that are BSing. I myself also consider generalist with quite a lot of success ranging from improving code performance in .NET and MS SQL to setting up whole servers with AD and best practices to technical hiring. But I saw maybe one other or 2 really like that. Other 20 or something „technical generalists” were business people hustling to be managers trying to look technical or outright scammers trying to loook like they can do everything but then delivering nothing. It usually takes around 6 months to uncover the guy that is BS then another 6 months to convince manager guy knows shit and we have to fire him asap.