

Ask HN: What Bay Area jobs are right for a generalist new to the area? - mrkunkel

I ask because I&#x27;ve spent the last 14 years working as a contractor at NASA in Cleveland doing both sys admin and development work, this has resulted in me pretty much being a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none type. I do all the normal server-side admin work like ESXi&#x2F;Windows&#x2F;Linux including file&#x2F;web&#x2F;database&#x2F;license servers, and all the full-stack design and development of in-house apps that govern access to the engineering group&#x27;s computing resources, and then also solve every other IT-related problem that comes up.<p>I know enough to know I&#x27;m no expert at anything. I&#x27;ve only been through one Bay Area interview, and it was my first time bombing a technical interview while programming on a web-based whiteboard. I did see the HN article on preparing for interviews, so hopefully I&#x27;ll do better in the future.<p>But my main question remains, what kind of job is best for someone that&#x27;s good at a lot of things, but not really focused on any one thing?
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soham
(Edited)

Just to answer the narrow question you ask: If you want to do a variety of
work in your next job, then your best bet is an early stage startup. They will
value the breadth more than larger companies, for obvious reasons. (Working at
a startup though, has its own risk profile and pros/cons to consider).

This comes from my own experience. I majored in general CS, and worked in a
variety of things at different kinds of companies, with no real
specialization. Box.com, then a series A/B company, valued that breadth. I was
a kid in a candy store.

More importantly though, you need to find a team that you like working with.
When you're working with people that inspire you, it's less about
specialization or not; you'll want to do anything to make it successful.

(I now run [http://InterviewKickstart.com](http://InterviewKickstart.com))

