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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?

#91

Post by hinkley »

BossingAround wrote: post #69
travbrack wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>what devops was supposed to be but nobody does it that way. Can you elaborate on this?

Not OP, but DevOps was supposed to be one pool of people taking care of everything, from infrastructure to networking to coding the whole thing. No handovers (or as few as possible), people who specialize, yes, but can take on a whole range of issues. If Mark the networking guy is on vacation, Jane the fullstack dev should be able to perform basic networking troubleshooting and implement some fix until Mark returns a…

A good start.

In other places, it just means operations people with some basic coding chops. And they’re still a completely separate group, instead of an integrated team solving systems problems.

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

#92

Post by duder_3569 »

BossingAround wrote: post #67
duder_3569 wrote: post #55

Become a Consultant at Red Hat! Wonderful, wonderful place to be a "jack of all trades," while also allowing you the opportunity to carve out a niche if you find you do become passionate about just one thing. In addition to working in DevOps roles, there are a range of consulting opportunities that are diverse, which adds another layer of keeping things interesting. You can do work with small companies, large compani…

Consultants seem to have a very chaotic work life, traveling pretty much non-stop, being thrown to clients with no deep knowledge (in the beginning at least) and the sink-or-swim mindset... If that's what OP (or anyone else) is looking for, consulting career might be awesome for bootstrapping one's skill and career. Most consultants I've seen have switched positions after a year and a half or less. There are some who…

"Chaotic" is probably not an inaccurate word. It's not a career suitable for all personalities. I think it's best for someone who is hungry to learn and do something new, constantly... As there's always lots that needs to be done in the midst of "chaos", while also traveling often, like you say. That said, Red Hat has some incredible incentives (benefits like an annual 2 week company shutdown) that helps offset some of this busyness. Red Hat is also usually quite accomadating of certain life/work dynamics that are better for some, such as allowing people to work primarily remote, if it's something that an employee feels they need at a certain time in their life.

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

#93

Post by duder_3569 »

czbond wrote: post #79
BossingAround wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consultants seem to have a very chaotic work life, traveling pretty much non-stop, being thrown to clients with no deep knowledge (in the beginning at least) and the sink-or-swim mindset... If that's what OP (or anyone else) is looking for, consulting career might be awesome for bootstrapping one's skill and career. Most consultants I've seen have switched positions after a year and a half or less. There are some who…

I agree with you and this fits enough people. Many (myself included) thrive off constant action and change, steep risk and learning curves. I started in management consulting - and even after doing startups for years - find startups too mind-numbingly boring. (But that may be me) If I'm on an internal teams - I have to work on many things at once to keep sane. For me, management consulting (using my CompSci as a star…

Agreed. Not for all, but certainly a great fit for people who love change and doing new things.

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

#94

Post by 0xff00ffee »

Are you sure you're a "jack of all trades"? It sounds like you have interests that cross different domains, but can you execute in those domains? You're not likely to get a job as a generalist if your pitch is "I like everything", unless you can demonstrate your accomplishments across a broad range, which takes years to develop. With only 7 years expereince, it is not likely you've achieved that.

That being said, I think you are a budding generalist and should continue to take focused jobs in multiple areas and develop your depth professionally.

There is a reason why generalists tend to be in the 40's and 50's: it takes a long time to get there.

EDIT: I want to point out that over 30+ years in the industry I can say that the "generalist" disposition is rare. MANY engineers just want to put their heads down, do their one task, and grind through life without ANY upsets. Seriously, I've left companies, come back after years of absence, and seen people doing the same tasks they were doing 10 years ago. That's fine if that's your jam, but having the desire to learn and grow and be new at things is RARE. So run with it!!!

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

#95

Post by hanoz »

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.

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

#96

Post by epiphanitus »

antoncohen wrote: post #83

Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)[1]. Read the SRE book ( https://landing.google.com/sre/books/ ). Study any gaps you have. Tailor your resume and talking points to the job/direction you want, meaning de-emphasize some things, while still showing your career path and depth. Look to work at a big-ish company that is respected for engineering quality, where you can learn from others and from existing good practices. It d…

It’s a fun challenge depending on the company, but before taking a job like that ask about on-call schedules so you know what you’re getting into.

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

#97

Post by [deleted] »

redsymbol wrote: post #90
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.

Why? How does it matter? Not meaning to challenge you in any way, just sincerely want to understand your thinking.

[deleted]

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

#98

Post by jayparth »

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?

I'll share my experiences becoming a PM outside of a formal program like APM. I started out as an intern and now I'm a junior PM.

You're slightly moving the goalpost with your comment, because it's not necessary to go through formal training to be a PM. Engineers are tangentially involved in the product process pretty much always. The transition is essentially about taking more responsibility over the product and spending more time driving product vision as opposed to building. Passing a PRD to your manager if you thought a feature could be done better was encouraged at my last job.

Your manager will often support you doing this. Then, if you've been doing this well, you can speak about making a change to the PM role because you've proved yourself. If your manager does not support you doing this or the company doesn't need another person in a product role, then you might need to make a change.

FYI large companies accept internal applications for their APMs, which is a formal training program, albeit pretty much for junior employees only.

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

#100

Post by jl2718 »

To me, all of those roles are the same “IT” job. I’d expect all of them from the same person. There are plenty of people that are bobsleigh racer butcher quantum physicist night club deejay art critics applying for C# financial database platform architect roles.
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