Hybrid dev/designer here. My experience: Being a hybrid is difficult because of these kinds of situations. Even if you get to be very good at one or the other

Hybrid dev/designer here. My experience: Being a hybrid is difficult because of these kinds of situations. Even if you get to be very good at one or the other (or both), you're still perceived as inferior by virtue of your supposed "lack of focus." Bullshit. I had a hard time with this until I realized that I bring something rare to the table. The ability to traverse these two worlds is an immensely valuable trait. People like you are often the glue that binds great teams together, because you know both professions from the inside, and you're able to communicate with each in their own terms. You can add value constructively ("Here's a possibility that either side isn't aware of because they don't know what the other half can do") and prophylactically ("That's a bad approach to the problem, because the other team will get stuck hard if you do it that way"). You are uniquely able to hash out ideas to the show-somebody phase quickly, because you know how to supply all the requisite ingredients. At the end of the day, hybrids like you (and me, and lots of others out there) have a harder time demonstrating value because it's assumed we are simply shallow generalists. I'm sorry to say that the onus will always be on you to prove them wrong, and you have to market these rare aspects of yourself. The effects of your presence in a company are often diffuse and hard to measure, which makes your task doubly hard. Welcome to the club. There are many companies which are desperate for talent like yours. If you are like me, you'll feel unfulfilled working exclusively on one side or the other. Don't settle for a job that only draws upon half your talents—you are more than the sum of your parts. Keep growing both sides of you, and make "marketing myself" a learning goal for this year. :)