Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#1

Post by programbreeding » Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 12:57 PM UTC

tl;dnr: Unhappy at my job after >7 years. Love being a jack of all trades. Love learning new things. Hate being stagnant. Hate being the smartest person in the room. Need something new. What roles out there fit the skill set of someone that is good at a whole lot of things, but doesn't feel like a master/senior in any one of them?

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I've been at the same small company for over 7 years. I started at the bottom, worked my way to the top after 3 years, and I've been here since. For a couple years I created new positions for myself because I hate being stagnant, but there's nothing else to do here.

I'm proficient in many things and enjoy doing all of them. Development (full stack), server admin, data center management, DevOps, project management, managing teams, VoIP, routing/switching, training, sales... the list goes on.

My issue is I haven't had formal training in a lot of it, and I didn't have any mentors or people above me to teach me more because this company is too small. I just love learning and love moving forward so I kept teaching myself new things, and then using them in the company. I don't actually feel like I have impostor syndrome, but I also feel like someone that is filling these roles at another company probably knows/does it better job than I can. I'm just a big fish in a small pond here.

So finally to my question: what role/job title I should be looking for? All the searching I do points me to one specific roles. PHP Developer. Systems Admin. Network Engineer. Etc. Are there any other "Jack of all trades" out there that can tell me what your job title is, and what I could be looking for?

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#2

Post by gshdg » Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 2:24 PM UTC

Smaller companies need generalists more than big ones do. You’re likely best off in early stage startups, small agencies, or your own consulting business. There are also incubators and such who can use that skillset to help bootstrap multiple startups per year.

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#3

Post by programbreeding » Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

gshdg wrote: post #2

Smaller companies need generalists more than big ones do. You’re likely best off in early stage startups, small agencies, or your own consulting business. There are also incubators and such who can use that skillset to help bootstrap multiple startups per year.

Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it. I like the idea of working at an incubator. Frankly I didn't realize they had employees in that way (I've never been involved with one). I thought it was more just that they provided a working space and mentoring. I didn't consider that they would employee people to actually help people. I'll look in to that.

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#4

Post by gshdg » Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

programbreeding wrote: post #3

gshdg wrote: post #2

Smaller companies need generalists more than big ones do. You’re likely best off in early stage startups, small agencies, or your own consulting business. There are also incubators and such who can use that skillset to help bootstrap multiple startups per year.

Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it. I like the idea of working at an incubator. Frankly I didn't realize they had employees in that way (I've never been involved with one). I thought it was more just that they provided a working space and mentoring. I didn't consider that they would employee people to actually help people. I'll look in to that.

It’s less common in accelerators where companies apply from outside. More common in incubators (distinct from accelerators) when a firm wants to foster and spin off ideas. These are commonly run by investment firms or large corporations.

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#5

Post by programbreeding » Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 6:59 PM UTC

gshdg wrote: post #4

programbreeding wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it. I like the idea of working at an incubator. Frankly I didn't realize they had employees in that way (I've never been involved with one). I thought it was more just that they provided a working space and mentoring. I didn't consider that they would employee people to actually help people. I'll look in to that.

It’s less common in accelerators where companies apply from outside. More common in incubators (distinct from accelerators) when a firm wants to foster and spin off ideas. These are commonly run by investment firms or large corporations.

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks again.

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#6

Post by rashoodkhan » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 2:43 PM UTC

Hey. Do you want to work with a startup going through good scaling up growth? Also, want to learn from your experience on VoIP and scaling the infra. Let me know?

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#7

Post by robviren » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 2:44 PM UTC

Product manager is great for generalist. I was a programmer who enjoyed technical challenge, but I eventually realized if I wanted to guide the direction of projects I would have to join the business side.

The challenge is endless, diverse, and there is no perfect solution to the problem if people. It is a strange domain, but being technical is nice when working with development. Worth a try if you are in to that

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#8

Post by topkai22 » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 2:56 PM UTC

If you are a “people person” IT consulting, technical sales engineering, and other “field” based technical roles at larger companies require a lot of generalist skills. Consulting and sales engineering are a lot more technical than I expected when I moved over from product engineering. The big downside is they tend to be high travel roles.

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#9

Post by ScottFree » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 2:58 PM UTC

robviren wrote: post #7

Product manager is great for generalist. I was a programmer who enjoyed technical challenge, but I eventually realized if I wanted to guide the direction of projects I would have to join the business side. The challenge is endless, diverse, and there is no perfect solution to the problem if people. It is a strange domain, but being technical is nice when working with development. Worth a try if you are in to that

Let's say a programmer was looking to make that change. Where would he start? Are there training programs? What kind of company would provide a gentle introduction? Is it easier to navigate the politics of a small company creating their own product compared to a large consulting company that provides staff augmentation services?

Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?

#10

Post by brayhite » Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 2:58 PM UTC

robviren wrote: post #7

Product manager is great for generalist. I was a programmer who enjoyed technical challenge, but I eventually realized if I wanted to guide the direction of projects I would have to join the business side. The challenge is endless, diverse, and there is no perfect solution to the problem if people. It is a strange domain, but being technical is nice when working with development. Worth a try if you are in to that

I’ll second this. About 6 months ago we hired a product manager who had years of experience basically being a jack of all trades. Design, web development, stat analysis, marketing, etc. she’s capable of having conversations with everyone on the team and eager to make an impact on the product vision while understanding she has a lot to learn still. I’m excited to see where she helps us go over the next year.