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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?

#181

Post by Rapzid »

Look for jobs that are outside your comfort zone. Leverage your existing experience to convince a new company you can do X even though you've never done X, but based on your history of doing Y which is related but not the same. You didn't know Y when you started it either, but you got Y done and know the impact on the business.

Look for Systems Engineering(not a title used much anymore TBH), DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering, Platform Engineer, Developer Experience engineer(or whatever).

A lot of these roles will be very cross discipline and non-functional. Always be on the lookout for cog-in-machine roles; DevOps can be "The buck stops at you for our companies site reliability" or "you write Chef cookbooks and test kitchen scripts all day".

Don't let anyone tell you your skill set doesn't exist. Let's face it, most college grads do the bare minimum of learning for their degree. Most people don't to TOO much more than what they need to keep their career viable. Being a "generalist" is like taking 20 electives you don't need to graduate; it's inconceivable to many people. Mediocre engineers and specialists will rail against the idea to protect their ego. Generalists will rail against specialist value to protect their ego. Don't get too caught up in the BS.

Be prepared to be pigeon-holed. Nearly every person you meet at your new employer will see your last job "title" and generalize you. Typically the only exceptions will be the recruiter and maybe, incredibly maybe, the hiring manager.

GL/HF

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

#182

Post by benji-york »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #139
yibg wrote: post #118

Put in a bit of a different view point here. I was the generalist a while ago too. Worked at a consulting firm that did custom builds with small teams, so not only did everything technology wise but also interacting with clients. So did part of developer, account management, sales, dev ops etc roles. Also did everything from backend to mobile in different frameworks and environments. I thought the same, that I was a…

Point 3 is a good one, I would just aim at \pi rather than T, just in case.

How about jellyfish-shaped?

I.e., T-shaped with many descenders of various length.

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

#183

Post by bsanr2 »

cloverich wrote: post #169
bsanr2 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You think turning a 44k loan into multiple successful businesses is average?

>among people in his position

That is, among college students without the baggage of full adulthood (debt, personal responsibilities, the mental and physical degradation that starts as early as your mid-twenties, and the risk aversion that comes with these things), and with the support of at least moderately wealthy parents and the affordances they bring: yes, there's not much here to show above-average performance. This individual received exceptional advantages which he certainly capitalized on, but there's no indication that he did so above the level of an average replacement.

We owe it to ourselves to be realistic about prospects.

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

#186

Post by lytefm »

bborud wrote: post #151
phendrenad2 wrote: post #149

Jack of all trades is okay, but it's best if you pick one thing that you like best and specialize in it. Your other skills will help you in your day-to-day, but the deep specialization will help you with career advancement. Also don't forget to change the "one thing" if it becomes too untrendy... PHP developers aren't making what they once did, although PHP is still used all over the place.

"Jack of all trades, master of a few" is a better ambition. If you are in your 20s, your first goal is to become master of at least a couple of trades. Roughly 1-1.5 per decade. As an employer I look for a balance. I look for the ability to have deep knowledge in at least one area, but also working knowledge in more areas. Think of it as an S-curve that is steep in the 20s and flattens somewhere in the 50s. Those fir…

This sounds like good advice. I'm also employed at an early-stage startup and enjoy peeking into different areas in order to become proficient enough to be a founder myself at some point. In contrast, I rather disliked my first student job in a more established company after a year for being too specialised. Someone mentioned that a pi-shaped knowledge would be a good thing to aim for - I guess especially if they integrate well. I truly enjoy doing both Full-Stack Web Development (leaning towards backend) and Data Science (Python).

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

#187

Post by s3nnyy »

akcreek wrote: post #82
chirau wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This business of buying and selling businesses, I have heard a bit about it here and there but i don't even know where to start looking for people who are either selling or who are buying. I'd love to look into it as I think I would quite enjoy it. Any resources you could point to?

Buying online businesses wasn't even on my radar at the start, but I stumbled onto the first one via a blog that I followed. They posted that they were going to sell their online business and to drop them an email if interested. I read that and immediately thought, well that's for me, so I sent them an email. I had zero clue what I was doing at that point. The last business I acquired was though a broker; FE Internat…

Isn't this a lemon market? Owner's expectations always are too good, or not? It is their "baby" and they are biased to think it's better than it is. A seller could hire someone to run the thing for them, so why sell unless the person needs money or is hiding something? Maybe I am too pessimistic.

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

#188

Post by BrandoElFollito »

benji-york wrote: post #182
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point 3 is a good one, I would just aim at \pi rather than T, just in case.

How about jellyfish-shaped? I.e., T-shaped with many descenders of various length.

Yes, this is very good too. Make it a strong tripod with accessory legs and it is perfect.

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

#190

Post by wallflower »

crucialfelix wrote: post #123
wallflower wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a story about a developer going to project management from developer. Speaking from the experience of a friend, they started out by talking with their manager that they did not want to be a developer in the long term. Shortly thereafter, the manager announced to the team that the developer was going to start taking on project management tasks (like managing the project using Microsoft Project and leading the…

Grandparent was suggesting Product Management, not Project.

Thanks, I did not make it clear enough that I understood that, yet thought my friend’s experience to transition internally was relevant.
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