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

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

#101

Post by FartyMcFarter »

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.

> Smaller companies need generalists more than big ones do

Big companies like Google also seem to hire a lot of generalists who have good programming fundamentals, are smart, and can quickly (i.e. within months) become productive in many kinds of projects.

These generalists then work on a project for 1-3 years. When they lose interest, they move to another Google project or leave the company.

If you really want to work on both engineering and sales, you'd probably want to run your own business or work at a very small company.

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

#102

Post by antalk »

I'm in a similar situation, with a similar mindset and education (i.e. none)

Sure, a broad skillset would make an excellent case for starting your own business, but I think that being a "jack of all trades" is a sign of a certain personality: great vision and engineering talent, but lack of disciplin to really follow through.

Trying to start my own business has been the most frustrating chapter of my life. I would drop projects regularly to work on something more exciting. I never got anything done until I randomly found a job with a good boss.

Good management is crucial. Someone who can keep up with new ideas and who can delegate the burden which comes with project work. The field is in my view irrelevant; you would pick up the skills anyway.

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

#103

Post by akcreek »

hanoz wrote: post #89
akcreek wrote: post #51

I have a wide-ranging self-taught skill set as well that I've developed over the last 14 years of running my own businesses. I'll share what I'm doing from a high level as it might not be the most common path. I've been acquiring small but promising businesses that don't have the right team in place to move them forward. I bootstrap them on my own and replace my roles as the business can afford staff. Once enough rol…

That's facinating. Do you tend to buy the entity of the business, or would the original owner keep a small stake? And do you get any professional help with the accountancy and legal aspects of the original purchase?

Thus far my acquisitions have all been asset sales where I've started a new LLC, which has purchased the assets we define in the purchase agreement. I've not done any deals where the original owner keeps a stake, but I would consider an arrangement like that if asked for. Nobody has asked yet though.

I did the first three solo and on the last one I had a couple of conversations with my attorney during the process. I wanted the attorney to be fully involved on the last one because the purchase price was higher than the previous acquisitions (high six figures), but the timing just didn't work out. I wanted to close quicker than he could handle so I just went ahead.

Asset purchases aren't that complicated since you aren't brining on liabilities. Still, I'm sure it is advisable to have professionals help with due diligence, contract negotiation, etc.

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

#105

Post by [deleted] »

ScottFree wrote: post #71
dadoge wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree, many companies have a way for engineers to pivot into product. The hardest part is having a frank conversation with your manager. I’ve seen many engineers become PMs within the same company

Do they, though? Do they have formal management training for engineers who want to become product managers?

[deleted]

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

#106

Post by autotune »

hanoz wrote: post #95
shepardrtc wrote: post #33

DevOps I had the same issues for many years, but the past 2 positions have been official "DevOps" positions and they more often than not have me doing so many random things that require all sorts of skills. I love it. It keeps things interesting, and it makes me very valuable to the company because I can do whatever they need. Sure, some places have a very narrow definition of DevOps, but that's usually the large com…

Whenever I see DevOps roles advertised they seem to consist of a wall of product names under "must have x years commercial experience of", which is not at all conducive to attracting a true turn-hand-to-anything generalist.

Yeah but when it's "must have x years of experience of $CLOUD_PROVIDER" that's a whole ecosystem of tools to become proficient at. As someone who does DevOps I've learned to take any hard requirements in job descriptions with a grain of salt; companies are desperate for good DevOps talent, most suck at hiring for it, and some are aware of both of those facts and as a result are more flexible on some things than they would like you to believe.

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

#107

Post by bsanr2 »

rdbell wrote: post #86
exterrestrial wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. Thanks for being honest. It might help to put this in the first comment though.

Many people like to use examples like this to argue that people with family loans have an easy path to success. $44k is an excellent launchpad but the reality is that most people given opportunity to take $44k would quickly turn it into $0. I personally love hearing success stories like this and give full credit to people that can pull it off.

That's partly because most people will have baggage to attend to that a college student living off student loans would not, and will lack the safety net that parents who can loan you $44k represent. There's not much here to convince that his performance is any better than the average among people in his position.

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

#108

Post by raydev »

rdbell wrote: post #86
exterrestrial wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. Thanks for being honest. It might help to put this in the first comment though.

Many people like to use examples like this to argue that people with family loans have an easy path to success. $44k is an excellent launchpad but the reality is that most people given opportunity to take $44k would quickly turn it into $0. I personally love hearing success stories like this and give full credit to people that can pull it off.

> most people given opportunity to take $44k would quickly turn it into $0

Yes, because giving that much money to a kid and having it pay off also involves a lot of luck.

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

#110

Post by raydev »

Spooky23 wrote: post #87
exterrestrial wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The first acquisition was funded by a loan from my parents for $44K. Thanks for being honest. It might help to put this in the first comment though.

If you have some hustle anyone can raise that type of money. When I worked retail in college, a coworker was able to get $150k together to lease a 737 and crew for a couple of trips. He was then able to leverage his girlfriend’s boss (travel agent) to get some trips to Aruba and some other island. He netted enough to pay for his tuition, which was the goal.

> If you have some hustle anyone can raise that type of money.

If you have hustle and unearned confidence and an existing reliable network, sure.

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