
Ask HN: How to start a career as a generalist? - thriveaway
Hi,<p>Once I&#x27;m in a company I can make myself very useful by analysing, abstracting problems and telling people what they want from each other when they are having discussions and filling any gaps in front-end development. But because I&#x27;m no specialist in anything I find it hard to get my foot in the door. I could specialize or qualify in programing more, but I prefer the management and product owner work.<p>I&#x27;m 28, close to finishing my studies in &quot;media and fine art&quot; where I focused on experimental informatics, more precisely news distribution in the internet, interfaces and haptic feedback.<p>Wherever I worked I joined for some rather low-skill work and quickly become the one to organize at least the conceptual or technical aspects of the project.¹<p>I freelance doing some custom wordpress sites (those where you do need to write a bit of php) or small web implementations and work in a 3-4 person startup (unfunded, but self-sustaining by side-gigs). At the startup there is not much pay and I do some communications with customers and concept, design and frontend of a cordova&#x2F;angular app. If this startup succeeds, I will most likely float on top and have a nice job, but not much equity.<p>Now the question: Where to go from here? The launch date for the first project of the startup is immanent, so I&#x27;ll see how that performs soon. There is of course a lot of reason for doubt as with any startup, so I plan to look for a better payed job.<p>Thanks so much for the help!<p>¹ This way I went from flash animations (a few years back) for our client BMW to writing the specifications for a new outsourced MVP in one company (they offered me to become CTO on paper for the new child-startup, but for laughable pay). In another gig I moved from assistance to technical supervision of a short-film festival sponsored by the german state television.
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rubidium
A few thoughts:

1) You've already started your career.

2) Companies (generally) don't hire "generalists". They hire people to solve
their particular problems. You need to show why you're the right person to
solve company X's problems.

3) Sounds like you're headed toward a product manager or program manager role,
but need some more credentials to command that at legit companies. Starting in
technical management is a good place. Learn an industry really, really well
and then look into product manager roles.

~~~
analogwzrd
Pay really close attention to #2. Especially with large companies, if they
post a job opening it's because they've identified a specific job that needs
to be done. I've had trouble job hunting in the past because I've been working
for 6 straight years, but never doing one thing for more than about 6 months.
If the job posting says "5 years of experience doing X", I have 5 years of
experience and I've done X, but I haven't done X for 5 years.

Start-ups, on the other hand, seem to be a place where they like people who
know how to wear multiple hats. It seems like you've got your foot in the
door. If the start-up you're at seems like a dead end, start meeting people at
other start-ups in the area and grow your network.

~~~
sAuronas
Wearing multiple hats is for the partners/owners. Startups don't hire
generalist to do anything. I worked at Zomato's NEXTABLE (reservation software
on the iPad) as the iOS dev along with two interns. I used to do some Nodejs
and messed around in Java in addition to having done marketing and financial
modeling as a real estate developer. Still - I was hired to work on the app,
not server-side, not marketing nor making phone calls.

Pick something you like and get awesome at it and iterate from there.

~~~
wuschel
Having had a bit of startup mileage, I second this. I don't know why the above
post downvoted.

~~~
tedmiston
Because it's generally not the case for early stage employees. The first
couple hires, especially on engineering, definitely need to wear a variety of
hats. In my first startup engineering gig, I did everything from front-end
design and development to backend API work to helping people tech support
their Macs and upgrading hardware in team computers, talking with potential
investors, etc. Without a doubt, wearing multiple hats is the norm when
joining a startup that's pre-seed up to Series A or so.

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sixdimensional
I am a bit older than you, but I would say most of my life I and my peers have
considered myself/me a generalist. I have subject areas where I am much
stronger than others, but like you, I excel at "in-the-middle" jobs. I am good
at seeing the big picture and connecting the dots among people and teams.

That said, its been a constant struggle for recognition and position in
companies. When people realize what we can do, they tend to either promote and
support, or jail and exploit.

I find myself taking specific roles with a hope towards moving up in the
organization. Often the role isn't what I really want to do but there isn't
another way into the organization without that strategy. It takes time and
doesn't always work out.

I've tried the consulting role, and very nearly kicked off a serious
consulting company with multiple subject areas of focus. It is fun but in the
end, you still get hired to do a specific consulting job most of the time, not
just to be a generalist and give advice. One exception to that rule in my
experience was consulting with startups.

You seem to have realized the startup path. I have worked for startups and
that was pretty successful for the kind of person we are, but usually higher
stress. Also, the startup hopefully pays well enough and is successful,
otherwise you find yourself with some pay and some experience but no job when
the startup deflates and back to "ok, what to do next"?

Others have mentioned product/project management. I've done that too. Product
management has been a good match for generalists but without previous PM
titles on your resume it can be hard to get the first role. Technical product
management is a good way in, but make sure you know the difference between
what a product manager vs a technical product manager does. I suggest
Pragmatic Marketing training to get a leg up for this. Certifications can help
for product or project management in terms of recognition.

Long story short, I love being a generalist and I feel we often don't get the
respect we deserve. But it can be a hard slog getting through and we are a
unique and valuable resource, just like specialists. We're just specialists in
being general. :) So best of luck with your pursuits!

~~~
thriveavvay
Thank you very much. What you write confirms what I expect. I'll see if I can
find something equivalent to Pragmatic Marketing in Germany to get that leg
up.

------
bradfa
When you're trying to get hired, talk the talk you know about the problems the
company has, not about all of the skills you have. If you're able to focus the
discussions on how a subset of your skills provide lots of value to the
company, that's what's going to get you hired. Show that you know the domain
that the employer wants to see. Definitely mention your other skills, but
don't make them the focus of your interactions in the hiring process.

Then, once you've been hired and start working, you will naturally use your
other skills to add value to the company. After you've been with the company
for a little bit and have shown your other skills to also be valuable, that's
a good time to discuss getting more formal authority in other areas and/or a
raise to compensate you for the duties you've taken on.

------
bane
Get into Project/Program Management. Do it as a discipline rather than as a "I
just ended up doing it because nobody else will" Look for certifications in
Management that your company or field cares about (PMP/PMI etc.). Very quickly
you'll find that you can end up working on an infinite variety of projects and
can dip into countless fields (just remember to let your actual SMEs do the
work).

After a few years you'll find a groove in PMing that you may like and you can
try to scope your world to that (certain project types or sizes, etc.).

My background is CS, but I've ended up in this kind of role and have worked in
everything from helping out with Sales and Marketing to Designing Genomics
algorithms...just dipping in to fill gaps where needed and dipping out again
when there's somebody else who can fill it.

Generally the smaller the company, the more hats you'll end up filling and
you'll learn more skills that way, enabling you to generalize better.

I personally tend to bounce between very small and very large companies and
the ability to transition between skill sets has definitely been valuable in
the larger corporations...I usually find myself starting in a discrete role
and rapidly end up running a group or a department. When that gets boring I go
do something very hands-on in a small company. When I want more focus, I'll go
work in a large company.

The tradeoff is that I'm not highly skilled in any one field, but I can
usually fill in for lots of foundational stuff to get something off the
ground. I've worked in tons of fields, but would never really call myself a
specialist in any of those fields, the people who are dedicated to those
fields are far more skilled than I.

One bonus is I can usually take an idea and get some legs under a project very
quickly, then flesh out real needs and start to fill those with specialists as
needed. I've found that to be a very productive way to do business.

------
mybrid
I'm a software generalist. Fortune did a study once that where the discovered
the average person has three different careers. My first was in sales, before
the age of 28. Second was in manufacturing logistics working in a warehouse
and MRP. Third is software. Someone else suggested blogging. My sales
experience has been a great leg up over the typical programmer in human
relations. 1\. Figure out how to sell yourself because your competition
doesn't. 2\. Consult. I've owned my consulting company since I graduated from
college. Having a different "job" every year actually is a good thing when one
is project consulting. 3\. Be prepared to interview. I interview like crazy.
4\. Network with agents and agencies. Find the agency that knows how to place.

When I first started consulting I relied heavily on agents and agencies.
Agencies are a challenge and it takes time to find the a relationship that
knows how to put you in front of clients.

~~~
tedmiston
Running a consulting company and interviewing like crazy sound kind of
contradictory. Is your consulting part-time?

~~~
tylerlh
As an individual consultant, it's not terribly uncommon for the contracting
company to interview you and get a feel for how working with you will be
beforehand. At least that's been my experience.

~~~
tedmiston
I work as an independent contractor developer (not as a consultant). I would
say that I get pitched on projects and to respond, I relate my background and
experience to the problems conversationally, but I wouldn't call it an
"interview" or at least it's a radically different style of interview than a
dev candidate, for example, I typically do not get asked tech screen questions
like algorithms problems, whiteboard coding, etc. Perhaps my experience is
different than the norm because I work with a small number of clients very
closely. OTOH, maybe it's just a matter of perspective.

------
azurelogic
Consulting. If you like solving different problems for different people,
nothing will get you more variety of problems and people who have them than
consulting. If you want to focus on the development and client relations bits,
join a consulting firm with a solid sales team and smart devs to help you
learn areas you're weak in.

Source: I've been a consultant for 3 years out of the 5 that I've been a
developer. I always grow and learn the most and get the most customer contact
in these roles.

~~~
thriveavvay
"join a consulting firm" That is good advice, sounds like a good fit. I don't
feel expert enough to consult freelancing, but with the backing of a firm it
should be more easy to figure out where my weaknesses are.

~~~
analogwzrd
I've had a similar problem and the advice that's always given to me is "The
term 'expert' is mostly about perception." Credentials help when you're trying
to sell your services because they're used as a proxy for competence. Having a
track record of success can also work. Start small.

~~~
enraged_camel
>>I've had a similar problem and the advice that's always given to me is "The
term 'expert' is mostly about perception."

Not sure I agree. I work for a consulting firm. One of our main revenue
sources is clients who hire us to fix the mess created by "experts". The
difference is that we actually _are_ experts in our problem space - as in, we
have lots of experience and technical knowledge - so we can actually add value
to our clients' operations.

Don't get me wrong: perception is definitely important. But the worst thing
one can do is sell oneself as an expert when they actually aren't. If one is a
generalist, they should figure out ways to package that in ways that will
resonate with the clients they are going after.

Starting small is good advice, though.

------
joeclark77
This reminds me of me when I finished the MBA, thought I was trained in
"business", and tried to find a job as a "businessman". Oh, the folly of
youth! It doesn't actually work that way in life. All businesses do specific
things. All technology projects use specific technologies. If you want to make
yourself a "generalist" that either means _specializing_ in something that's
used in a lot of different jobs (like PHP or Python), or _specializing_ in
more than one thing.

The key paradigm shift you need to make is this. You are probably viewing any
kind of _specific_ knowledge as a hindrance, a chain that will limit your
freedom to do other things. In fact, though, it is the collection of such
knowledge (as much as you can get) that eventually makes you multi-skilled
hence _free_.

~~~
ikeyany
I really like this advice...I don't think I've ever seen the benefit of
specialization to the generalist worded so succinctly.

------
3stripe
I'd recommend reading Cal Newport's "So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills
Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love" for some great insights on how
to build your skills whilst changing jobs/careers. His approach in 3 steps:

 _1\. Develop skills that are rare and valuable

2\. Do something useful and good for the world

3\. Work with people you like_

------
adambutler
Embrace being a generalist.

I myself have gone through a similar dilemma, being a generalist allows you to
make informed decisions that sit between two disciplines. When the problem
concerns both sides you ARE the expert. This is a specialist skill in itself.

If you are looking for something specific I'd highly recommend working in R&D
this will give you the opportunity to work in a role where being a generalist
really helps.

------
lj3
You can program and you have a degree in fine art. Why aren't you looking for
data visualization gigs? It's a lucrative specialty that few people are well
suited for.

------
thebiglebrewski
You could do what I do and find a startup that is just at the stage that they
need an in-house tech person. There's tons of problem solving at that stage
usually across many different areas! I'm programming, meeting with key
stakeholders, sending RFPs and meeting with software vendors, etc. I didn't
get this job by applying for it though, rather by contacting the company at
just the right time.

------
sqldba
It sounds like you're talking about being a project manager.

PMs don't code though. Not if they want to survive.

Not sure why you're talking about being a generalist but that word will kill
any chance you have of getting a job unless it's help desk.

~~~
jmduke
I'd add that the best PMs I've had _can_ code and occasionally did (writing
things like QoL scripts or database/ORM stuff for metrics gathering), but it's
definitely not part of the day-to-day job.

------
itamarst
1\. Apply for better paying startup jobs. Startups are always changing, and
there's more scope for fluid job roles.

2\. Apply for jobs as product manager, or (a bit trickier) if you have the
resume for it as technical manager.

~~~
thriveavvay
The 2nd option sounds good. In both cases I guess I have to apply a lot and
see what I can get. Thanks for the advice!

------
freshglenn
As a generalist myself, I would say try and find a way to land yourself a
customer success gig. On any given day, I'm managing my team, our clients or
our products in a non-trivial way.

Granted, having any say about the product took time and the final decision
rest with our CPO, but with your design skills you could make the segue over
to product teams much faster, if you wanted to.

~~~
thriveavvay
By "land yourself a customer success gig" you mean getting a finished project
to show off?

Thanks for the advice.

~~~
jabv
I think the parent used "customer success" as a reference to the job function
of interacting directly with clients and serving as a channel for feedback.
This type of work often affords one the opportunity to develop product
improvement proposals directly informed by real customer use cases, so it
requires a broad understanding of the industry, the user, and the technical
implementation.

------
codingdave
Specialize in an industry instead of a technology.

------
contingencies
If you keep changing areas you will eventually be a generalist by default. If
you gravitate to one sort of work (architecture, project management, etc.)
then you will use generalist skills but perhaps develop less breath. Don't
worry, just enjoy what you do.

------
itamarst
Thinking about this some more, I think being a specialist is really about how
you market yourself. Your skill set may be that of a generalist, but there's
nothing stopping you from pitching yourself as a specialist in whatever the
company cares about, so long as you know you'll be able to do it.

More detailed write-up: [https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/01/19/specialist-
vs-genera...](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/01/19/specialist-vs-
generalist/)

------
owenversteeg
I'm a generalist. I've done things ranging from work with thermoelectric
elements to creating battery systems to making UAVs to full-stack development.
Sometimes it's really easy to find work. Sometimes it's really hard.

I recommend expanding to as large of an area as you can. I started as a full-
stack developer, which is kind of a generalist role. Then I expanded to
thermoelectric stuff, and then UAVs and batteries. Each of these things
started as a personal interest.

If I were you, I'd find things you are interested in, and specialize in
several of them as quickly as you can. Have you always been interested in
hydrogen fuel cells? Spend a bit of time to learn as much as you possibly can
about fuel cells. Know the cheap end of the market, know the expensive end,
know the experimental research, know the size of the market.

The easiest way to get a job as a generalist is to get a "normal" job and
convince the company that you can solve their problems in other ways. Going up
to a company and saying "Hi, I'd like to be a generalist at your company"
won't usually work, but "I'd like to be a full-stack developer with freedom to
collaborate with teams throughout the company" will. Eventually, you'll grow
into the "generalist" role and the company will recognize you as such.

The other, ideal option is to work for other generalists. For example, I was
recently looking for someone who knows how to make CFD models, someone who can
write assembly, and someone who knows about control surfaces. I would have
hired a generalist who knows one or two of those three and could learn the
rest quickly. I wanted to hire a generalist because I know that several months
down the line, when I need something else, I can tell them "hey, I need you to
do x now" and they can figure out how to do it themselves.

Here's an example of how I provide value as a generalist. A company hired me a
while ago to improve the efficiency of their UAV system. Because I know about
battery technology, I was able to build them a battery pack that brought the
flight time from 9 minutes to 28 minutes, and cut costs by over 90%. Because
I'm a full-stack web developer, I was able to build a web interface to control
the system. Because I've worked on UAVs, I knew when to replace parts with
low-cost alternatives and when to spend several hundred dollars on one motor.
Because I've done UI/UX work, the system was usable without any training for
everyone involved. And since I knew how to make these things "from scratch"
there was no need to send things out to external agencies, and I was able to
develop the system very quickly.

The hard part is convincing random people and companies that you're valuable
to them. Unless you get lucky and find another generalist at the company that
understands your value, you'll have to demonstrate it. But be careful. Only go
to companies that have a semi-flexible structure already (e.x. don't try this
at Microsoft or Apple.) Demonstrate your value with concrete things that can
be done immediately with clear benefit. For example, at a lot of places I'm
hired as a programmer, and I see a battery system that could be improved. I
can go to them and say "by the way, you could switch out your current
batteries for a custom pack and save $9000 per system, and I could build you
that pack in less than an hour." If they like that, then the next suggestion I
have will probably be an easier sell, and so on and so on until you've built
up a role - official or unofficial - as a generalist.

------
a_imho
Scrum is still in fashion, perhaps you could add Scrum Master to your CV maybe
even get a certificate to go with it. Then it depends on your office politics.

------
maxxxxx
As long as your pay is low it is hard to tell whether you are valued by your
company. It sounds a little like you are afraid of asking for money or taking
on responsibilities and instead just go along with others. I don't think you
can build up a reputation that way.

~~~
thriveavvay
I am valued, but the startup is really low on money (because we try to get our
project done, not do much client work). As some compromise I now do it just 3
days a week and partly remote.

~~~
maxxxxx
Do you have serious equity if things work out?

~~~
thriveavvay
Nope, nothing serious. Hence I'll see what happens now after the launch and
then probably move on.

~~~
maxxxxx
I don't want to be too negative but I have been in a similar situation. Once
money starts flowing it's very unlikely that you will get more. If you being
underpaid and have no serious equity you are being disrespected and that won't
change.

------
tait
Sounds like you might be a natural for project management - might look into
that role as well.

~~~
thriveavvay
Yes, I thought so too, but I'm not sure how to get in to it.

------
xiaoma
Are you blogging about news distribution in the internet, interfaces or haptic
feedback?

~~~
thriveavvay
Thanks for the advise and: no.

I really have to get over the reverse Dunning–Kruger Effect (I know enough to
know how much I don't know). In practice this is not an issue: if a problem is
solved is farely easy to verify, but making statements is something else.

I will work on this :)

------
qznc
It sounds like you live in Germany? I have heard freelance project manager is
a thing. Did you try to apply for those jobs?

~~~
thriveavvay
I will try :)

------
franze
move to austria / graz, become my employee, then my partner, then my
competition (I'm ok with it)

------
karmajunkie
The advice I give developers at the beginning of their career is that its
really difficult to be a generalist when you don't have much experience to
lean on. You end up knowing just a little bit about a lot of things, but you
don't plug any holes for the team, so everyone there is deeper than you are on
any question that matters. This was how my career started, and though its
worked out really well for me as a consultant, there were several years where
I questioned my fitness for this career path and even went down a road towards
medical school before returning to the field, incurring a not-insubstantial
student loan debt along the way.

First, focus on getting depth of experience in one area. This could be front-
end or back-end. These days you'll want to pick a framework and get really,
really good at it—could be react, ember, angular, vue, whatever. But be really
solid in that framework and the language it uses (modern javascript, for
example.) Learn all the tools you use in that capacity (e.g. Chrome's web
developer console, webpack, etc). Then branch out—for our hypothetical front-
end developer, pick up another framework and learn it about 70-80% as well as
you know your first. Or learn how to pull off an isomorphic React application
and start learning about the back end.

This is the "right"[1] way to become a T-shaped developer. Once you start
branching out into other languages or platforms or whatever strikes your
fancy, and you develop some experience with those things, you get to be more
of a "paint-drip" developer. [2] Eventually you've been a generalist so long
that the area of your experience puts you on par with a mid-level developer in
any of several areas, and you're well-suited to a career phase as a
consultant, manager, etc. Then you become fairly expert in all of these areas
and you can start gap-filling (e.g. learn devops much more deeply, learn
design, whatever you didn't pick up the first time.) As a _seasoned_
generalist, you'll be pretty valuable in startup settings, but fair warning,
they rarely pay enough to warrant the time you've put into becoming a broad
expert. Unless you've got founder-level quantities of equity take those jobs
because you really like it, not for the illusion of an exit. It sounds like
you're already coming to this realization, so that's one less thing to learn
the hard way.

A word of advice in your current capacity—if you're not getting much pay, and
you don't have much equity, is this really the startup you want to trade those
things for experience with? Is it giving you a quality of experience that will
open doors or increase your depth in a single area? If not, you're better off
coming up with your own project and working on it to learn than giving your
time away to someone else's exit. With your degree concentration in
informatics and interfaces, you should probably look for a project that will
focus heavily on those skills.

Best of luck to you in finding the path you want to be on!

[1] There's rarely a single "right" way to do anything, but what I'm
describing is the way I wish I'd done it.

[2] [https://www.facebook.com/notes/kent-beck/paint-drip-
people/1...](https://www.facebook.com/notes/kent-beck/paint-drip-
people/1226700000696195)

~~~
sixdimensional
Working in a startup can be a great way to get a variety of experience. Too
much variety can be a trap that furthers appearing as too much of a generalist
for later positions. If the startup succeeds and you with it, even better.

But, for getting "established" financially as a human, startups with lower pay
that may not succeed can make it more challenging.

------
SixSigma
immanent doesn't mean what you think it means :) even though it still makes
sense in that sentence.

------
Animats
Mandatory XKCD: [http://www.xkcd.com/863/](http://www.xkcd.com/863/)

