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In March I was shopping around for a new job. It was common to be asked why I was changing jobs (especially in this economy...). A big part of my answer was tha

by mrshoe 17y ago

In March I was shopping around for a new job. It was common to be asked why I was changing jobs (especially in this economy...). A big part of my answer was that I wanted to try something new. I wanted to make sure that my resume didn't pigeonhole me as a Python web developer. Even though I had been in that field for my first 4 years out of college, I had worked in very different domains previously and I wanted to keep my options open in the future. I enjoy Python web development, but to avoid being too narrow I decided that my next job would be with a different language in a different domain. Most people understood that desire. A recruiter at one company where I interviewed disagreed with the strategy, though. She said it's ok to play around in a few different domains when you're young, but at some point you need to pick one and stick with it. That way you can be seen as expert in that domain and you can be considered eligible for higher level roles with more decision-making responsibility. I suppose I can see her point, but I sincerely hope she's wrong. I want my horizons to always be broad.

weaksauce 17y ago
Regarding the second recruiter, I wouldn't put too much stock in a recruiters opinion. Do whatever you want to do in life and don't worry too much about hitting the "ceiling." If you are on this forum then you probably are above average when it comes to programming and a smart boss would be able to see that programming language experience is secondary to problem solving and personal skills.
- donaq 17y ago
  Interesting. Why do you think that everyone on this forum is above average when it comes to programming?
  - weaksauce 17y ago
    I definitely did not say everyone. Probably better and everyone on the forum are two different subsets of the same population. That being said, if someone is on this forum they are more likely to be better at programming than average in my opinion. Just giving a shit about what you do is a leg up on a lot of the people out in the world.
run4yourlives 17y ago
She is dead wrong, with a caveat. Specialists tend to be very attractive to large corporations, where the role is "css designer" or "Oracle database development" or "email administrator". The company can afford the FTE to dedicate to the task with that level of detail, so of course the better you are specialisted, the better will stack up against others. An "oracle database developer" however is useless to a smaller company though, because they can't afford to hire a development team of 200. They need people (for example) that can develop in Oracle, MS SQL and Postgres, and also Python to properly import the data from their latest acquisition. The exposure to different environments and technologies, along with the method of working where you realize you don't know it all, is therefore key. My personal bias is that I find the latter style much more engaging and effective overall. Having worked in both environments, I find generalists much more flexible and in the end, capable, when dealing with things that aren't fully documented or expected. Specialists tend to be very "insular " in their thinking, looking to solve every problem within the scope of their knowledge. If you want to grow in business, however, flexibility is the key. It is simply impossible to know what tomorrow's challenges will be. If you don't think so, go talk to some ColdFusion developers, if you can find them. :-)
amalcon 17y ago
It's the classic quandary. Think of a term for someone who "does a little of everything". Did you think "jack of all trades"? Did you think "renaissance man"? Did you think something that's neither unambiguously positive nor negative, like "generalist"? A specialist is more valuable when you know exactly what you need someone to do. When you're looking for someone you can just sic on whatever needs help most, you want the generalist. For what it's worth, I'd actively disagree with the recruiter there. A younger person can get a good level of competence in one thing quickly, but one of the most valuable roles is the experienced generalist that everyone can bounce ideas off of. Just having one person like this (and a culture that encourages this) can substantially improve results in many areas on many projects at the same time.

by mrshoe 17y ago

weaksauce 17y ago

Regarding the second recruiter, I wouldn't put too much stock in a recruiters opinion. Do whatever you want to do in life and don't worry too much about hitting the "ceiling." If you are on this forum then you probably are above average when it comes to programming and a smart boss would be able to see that programming language experience is secondary to problem solving and personal skills.

donaq 17y ago
Interesting. Why do you think that everyone on this forum is above average when it comes to programming?
- weaksauce 17y ago
  I definitely did not say everyone. Probably better and everyone on the forum are two different subsets of the same population. That being said, if someone is on this forum they are more likely to be better at programming than average in my opinion. Just giving a shit about what you do is a leg up on a lot of the people out in the world.

run4yourlives 17y ago

She is dead wrong, with a caveat. Specialists tend to be very attractive to large corporations, where the role is "css designer" or "Oracle database development" or "email administrator". The company can afford the FTE to dedicate to the task with that level of detail, so of course the better you are specialisted, the better will stack up against others. An "oracle database developer" however is useless to a smaller company though, because they can't afford to hire a development team of 200. They need people (for example) that can develop in Oracle, MS SQL and Postgres, and also Python to properly import the data from their latest acquisition. The exposure to different environments and technologies, along with the method of working where you realize you don't know it all, is therefore key. My personal bias is that I find the latter style much more engaging and effective overall. Having worked in both environments, I find generalists much more flexible and in the end, capable, when dealing with things that aren't fully documented or expected. Specialists tend to be very "insular " in their thinking, looking to solve every problem within the scope of their knowledge. If you want to grow in business, however, flexibility is the key. It is simply impossible to know what tomorrow's challenges will be. If you don't think so, go talk to some ColdFusion developers, if you can find them. :-)

amalcon 17y ago

It's the classic quandary. Think of a term for someone who "does a little of everything". Did you think "jack of all trades"? Did you think "renaissance man"? Did you think something that's neither unambiguously positive nor negative, like "generalist"? A specialist is more valuable when you know exactly what you need someone to do. When you're looking for someone you can just sic on whatever needs help most, you want the generalist. For what it's worth, I'd actively disagree with the recruiter there. A younger person can get a good level of competence in one thing quickly, but one of the most valuable roles is the experienced generalist that everyone can bounce ideas off of. Just having one person like this (and a culture that encourages this) can substantially improve results in many areas on many projects at the same time.