121–130 of 231 posts
Today i look at them with envy when they are experts in one particular thing, like Microsoft AD or Sql-server or sharepoint.
It pays very very well something i never understood how and why companies would pay that much for specialized knowledge.
I'm a software developer, I make computer programs, not "Use $framework in $language".
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
You're quoting someone — you should use quote marks and add an attribution.
Pro tip: you're not a generalist. A big chunk of specializing is how you package/market yourself. I consider myself a "full stack employee". I've done backend, frontend, hosted live events, some sales, marketing, a dash of HR, pretty much everything. Do I write that on my LinkedIn? Heck no. A year or so ago I looked at all the experience I had, saw I had a through-line story of how I've worked on video projects over…
We Share a similar Point and we hide it in a similar way. I also hide my Excel skills extremely well, they are to be deployed only on emergencies.
Pro tip: you're not a generalist. A big chunk of specializing is how you package/market yourself. I consider myself a "full stack employee". I've done backend, frontend, hosted live events, some sales, marketing, a dash of HR, pretty much everything. Do I write that on my LinkedIn? Heck no. A year or so ago I looked at all the experience I had, saw I had a through-line story of how I've worked on video projects over…
I have noticed that when interviewing, the more specialized technical people often look down on full stack engineers, whereas managers are more excited about it. I consider myself full stack, but in my last role I presented myself as a frontend engineer, with some backend experience. Eventually this role just kinda expanded into both frontend and backend. Now that I do contract work, I present myself as whatever they…
I realized that I should have done so for a contract work that I wasn't hired for. They told me that they were looking for someone specialized. I knew exactly that they needed a generalist, mostly because they were an early stage startup. They never hired for the “specialized” position they contacted me for, because that position shortly became obsolete.
If that sounds good to you, keep generalising. But you'll need to dedicate a few years to a few different areas to start becoming the sort of deep generalist companies are interested in. I variously did web dev, enterprise application integration, AppSec, and microservices-based backend build and design, and after I did them and moved on to the next thing I kept up with the reading on each past topic as best I could.
Step 2. Find job requiring specialization
Step 3. Write resume to make it look like you're a specialist
Step 4. Profit.
I can raise a cluster of servers, create CI & CD pipelines, write ansible, configure the databases, write stored procs, write all the apis & the front end.
I don't need 5 other people to help me do any of that.
However, when working on a team, I can help whenever I'm needed and relieve bottle necks in the team I lead, and let the specialists do the more advanced things I can't do.