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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?

#141

Post by fxtentacle »

raydev wrote: post #108
rdbell wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That, or good parenting in the years before.

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

#142

Post by probinso »

This sounds like a full stack skillset. You want to "Jack up your trades"? Break into something else.

The next closest thing is Phone Stack Programming! That space has a lot of interesting challenges, and can leverage your current skills.

A good way to be the dumbest person in the room is to diverge hard. NLP, Security/Privacy, Image/Audio/Language Processing, Compilers, Operating Systems, Statistical Modeling.

I consider myself a Jack of all trades from the opposite side. I had 8 years industry work before my first opportunity to Full Stack. Hard switches are hard in every direction, but I am a big fan of "drowning to the top".

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

#144

Post by mNovak »

barrkel wrote: post #131
FartyMcFarter wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 wo…

I'd have put it the other way around. Small startups can't afford specialists, not in terms of salary, but in terms of output: there's too much stuff to do and the specialist work (whatever it is) isn't a large fraction of the total. The larger and more mature a company is, the more able it is to afford a job title which specializes in something narrower. It doesn't need to be super large; if the product is very tech…

Yup, this is spot on. In our startup one of the challenges to hiring isn't a lack of money or need, but rather that we need people who can bounce around a lot of somewhat specialized topics, while generally no one topic is big enough to justify a full-time specialist.

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

#145

Post by Drdrdrq »

purerandomness wrote: post #135
redsymbol wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Because it answers a different type of question: What you would do if you wouldn't have to work for a living, for the next six months . While interesting, most of us can't relate to this situation. Having half a year worth of "fun money" to spend bootstrapping a business idea, or investng in one, is skipping the first step. It's like one of these "draw the rest of the fucking owl" jokes: How to become rich: 1. Get 44…

> 3. Pofit!

Was that "Profit!" or "Poof it!"? ;)

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

#146

Post by eldavido »

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.

The other thing I also try to keep in mind: you only get one shot at life.

You can spend that one shot obsessing over what others have, how unfair things are, and whine away the decades.

The other option is to realize some may have it better than you, others worse, but that's life, so make the best of it.

"Get busy living, or get busy dying."

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

#147

Post by truebosko »

ScottFree wrote: post #9
robviren wrote: post #7

Product manager is great for generalist. I was a programmer who enjoyed technical challenge, but I eventually realized if I wanted to guide the direction of projects I would have to join the business side. The challenge is endless, diverse, and there is no perfect solution to the problem if people. It is a strange domain, but being technical is nice when working with development. Worth a try if you are in to that

Let's say a programmer was looking to make that change. Where would he start? Are there training programs? What kind of company would provide a gentle introduction? Is it easier to navigate the politics of a small company creating their own product compared to a large consulting company that provides staff augmentation services?

If you are in a role where you could be involved in the decision making of the product(s) you work on, getting involved in that [initially informally] is definitely the best way.

Be knowledgeable about metrics/kpis (and help create them if they don't exist), help your teammates grow through coaching, and work your way to be involved in those product discussions.

If you're not in such a position, try looking for a new job. So many companies need product managers and if you come clear on your ambitions, it seems to be easy to get past that initial wall.

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

#149

Post by phendrenad2 »

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.

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

#150

Post by 0xff00ffee »

Rapzid wrote: post #138
0xff00ffee wrote: post #94

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 t…

Seven years is quite a long time. That's just over two whole years at three separate companies! For somebody that can execute that's plenty of time to build a portfolio of accomplishments.

Agreed, but these are accomplishments at two years of expertise level. Two years is enough time to understand something, and that's generally the time required to demonstrate a promotion from "junior engineer" to "engineer" at big corporations. I guess it depends on your definition of generalist. I expect at least 3-4 areas of senior level expertise, which is 15-28 years in the business. Our definitions differ if you think it is someone who has dabbled in 7-14 things at two years of depth.

Both opinions are equally valid, BTW. I'm not sure there is "watermark" of what makes a generalist.

On the extreme far end, I know people who claim to "speak several languages" and basically know how to say "yes, no, please, thank you," and consider that sufficient to make the claim. Maybe that IS sufficient. I'm not actually sure, but the cynic in me says, "no."

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