Narratives are important. While it's true that companies often look to hire for a particular skill set and therefore eat up the narrative of a specialist, the

Narratives are important. While it's true that companies often look to hire for a particular skill set and therefore eat up the narrative of a specialist, the skill set of a generalist is a lot more useful in a small startup or if you decide to try to form your own company. (Likewise the skill set of a specialist is often more appropriate for contracts or permanent roles in large companies.) Either way, the article is right in saying that for a manager trying to hire to fulfill a specific role, the narrative of a specialist will often win. However, I personally despise this idea of "taming your inner generalist" as it is natural and human to be so. There are companies that will filter you out because your experience is too broad and they are at least being helpful in removing themselves from your market. I would not wish to work for a company in which employees of hiring capacity treat people as fungible resources that perform set roles. The companies that are left which look for individual potential, perspiration and personality in whatever form it comes, show, as far as I am concerned, a far deeper understanding of where innovation comes from; criss-crossing domains[0] gives a huge amount of idea optionality. Additionally, the advantage of being a generalist is in de-risking yourself against the movement of the employment market. [0] http://www.fastcompany.com/3009649/leadership-now/steve-jobs-nate-silver-and-pablo-picasso-why-the-most-creative-people-are-gen http://www.fastcompany.com/3009649/leadership-now/steve-jobs...