Founding engineer, employee #2, etc... The bigger the company, the harder this will be.
Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
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Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
#12I'm in the same boat, inside any given org I can tangibly feel that "jack of all trades" is in huge demand... and I find myself working long hours due to internal demand for this role inside companies. Like you, in my 20 years doing this type of role (wearing a large variety of different title hats) I've never been HIRED to the role. This feels odd, given playing the role always keeps me in high demand internally to…
> But even if they spent serious time using a technology, they still need 4 hrs of work in it to look surface competent again (I think because they're constantly swapping knowledge in and out, vs a deep knowledge person who have practiced the same patterns over and over and over).
I've been doing professional software work for 25 years. The last several years I've been working with various JS toolkits (vue/angular, some react) as well as backend stuff (mostly PHP, some Node, some Java, some other stuff), and attendant tooling and whatnot (build systems, testing systems, etc). The last 6 months, I've found myself contracting on different projects swapping between these various stacks, sometimes multiple times per week. I know I look incompetent as a JS developer to some folks who are living in that world 40+ hrs/week for years on end. Couple the various tech stacks with each team's own styles of doing things - which, really, they each seem to think any deviation from 'their' standards is heretical and indicates you're a 'lesser' or 'less experienced' developer - it wears thin after a while..
Trying to 'showcase' that 'jack of all trades' aspect in interviews rarely seems to go well, unless it's not an interview and just a word-of-mouth referral from someone who already 'gets it'.
Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
#13I'm in the same boat and there aren't many. Startup founder or first-wave employee is the most likely option. I've done that several times. The larger the company, the more cookie-cutter the roles and titles.
Another option is to find a cookie-cutter role that fits your interests. For me that means "embedded software engineer", where all of my experience is relevant. I'm definitely all-tech and no-management now though.
Yet another option is consulting/contracting/freelancing. You need a good network for that. I haven't done this. Preparing to potentially do it in a few years after I have a larger nest egg.
Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
#14Create a novel concept with uber numbers/scale/growth from the ground up. With faster rising valuation times. Plot twist. Make it non-profit.
Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
#15Startup CTO?
Depends on the stage of the startup. Most CTO's don't do anything except control the overall direction of the company.
Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
#16I've had really good luck going for what is now called DevOps. You end up working with every team, doing all sorts of strange tasks, and building strange glue to make strange systems work together. Any time there is a problem, you're involved in the fix. Almost any computer skill you have will be used at some point, at least in my experience.
Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
#17I've had really good luck going for what is now called DevOps. You end up working with every team, doing all sorts of strange tasks, and building strange glue to make strange systems work together. Any time there is a problem, you're involved in the fix. Almost any computer skill you have will be used at some point, at least in my experience.
Devops typically doesn’t get involved in product management .
Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
#18This has basically been my role for the past decade, minus management. In that time I've worked at tiny startups, hypergrowth unicorns, and the biggest tech comapnies. In no case have I ever been hired as a jack-of-all-trades fixer. In every case I was hired because of my specialty (mobile development), and ended up just "making myself useful".
In my experience, job titles, levels, and even team membership are more "guidelines" than rules, and are often trailing indicators of what and how you're actually doing. I wouldn't worry about finding the perfect opening - just find a team you like and a manager who seems to get it.
Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
#19Most jack of all trades jobs are at small companies in my experience, I've found most small places advertise themselves, not through agencies, so you can get a jack of all trades job there. They don't pay as well though, it's the trade off imho, interesting work that keeps you busy, or specialise and become a corporate consultant - lots of money but boring af.
Other alternatives:
- move into management
- found your own company - your jack of all trades skills will then be pressed
- you could also start a side project and put your energy into that, hopefully it will develop into your own company.
- write a book in something (edit: there's the international consultant route for this to I suppose, become a super specialist in one thing and run around talking about it)
- edit: Sales / evangelist etc
Re: Ask HN: How to find “senior” jack of all trades jobs?
#20Sounds like the type of person we’re interested in. Mind shooting me an email at alex@gatepay.co?