Interesting book on this: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.
What Is a Wildcard Person?
131–140 of 278 posts
Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?
#132Interesting book on this topic - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.
Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?
#133An existing term for an unpredictable or uncontrollable person, usually in a potentially negative way.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/wild...
Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?
#134I was that guy for some 5-6 years in earlier years of my career. It doesn't pay well. Job security is non-existent. You won't get visa sponsorships. Your only way out is to build your own startup/product.
It is too far out of the regular career spectrum, and you face even open criticism in interviews for this sometimes.
So, I stopped. I am an expert Frontend Engineer now. I get senior roles without even a proper interview. I pass all interviews like it is small talk. My job security is much better.
Downside? I cannot make a full-fledged side project anymore. I just realized this recently when I started building one and realized how much I had to re-learn again.
Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?
#13517 years ago, there was a popular essay about this sort of person, and the label at the time was "Free Electron": https://randsinrepose.com/archives/free-electron/ Before that, they were known as "generalists", autodidacts, polymaths, etc. The thing is that pretty much any clever person that's easily invested in novel things can become one of these people, so this label isn't reserved for people who are generalists,…
> If you care about things like income and career progression, do not let yourself become one of these people. They aren't valued, and it doesn't take a lot of staring at job postings or talking to hiring managers to figure out why.
I have the opposite experience. Being a generalist allowed me to "climb" fast at my current company as I am able to lead projects holistically and coordinate cross-functional teams.
I have no shortage of attractive offers, but more importantly I like to work this way. I can't imagine limiting myself to just one narrow area and ignore the big picture and so far it looks like I do not need to.
As for job descriptions: I would love to hire more of these people but it is difficult to put a job description through the system that would not be confusing. Thus, even I have written job descriptions for one specialisation that should be dominant, but in the fine print I make it clear that I am searching for someone with broader scope and will to basically "do what is needed".
PS: Thinking about it more... do you think industry legends like Jeff Dean or John Carmack fit more into the generalist archetype or are they narrow specialists?
Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?
#136I'm on my second year in a project where I'm nominally a "front-end developer", but actually doing all types of stuff.
I'm not really a wildcard person - my friend is and he arranged for me to take his place in this project.
Honestly I'm having fun. Front-end is generally low in the corporate hierarchy and it feels good not to be talked down by anyone for a change.
Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?
#13717 years ago, there was a popular essay about this sort of person, and the label at the time was "Free Electron": https://randsinrepose.com/archives/free-electron/ Before that, they were known as "generalists", autodidacts, polymaths, etc. The thing is that pretty much any clever person that's easily invested in novel things can become one of these people, so this label isn't reserved for people who are generalists,…
Is this simply an apriori argument? Do you have any evidence to back up your claim beyond your reasoning? I don't find it very persuasive, and based on my own experiences being a generalist for the majority of my career, I can say it certainly doesn't apply to me. My compensation is >$500k a year and I've been a software engineer since 2010.
How are you with the Layer 8 issues? I find in large organizations, that wildcards who can effectively relate and communicate, either directly or through an intermediary, with DRIs whose organizations they depend on, will succeed. The reason is that when a generalist/wildcard/"tiger team" is introduced to a mature organization that has specialized, the reason usually is that there is something not working as desired with the system as a whole, a system that significant investment has been placed into. and that takes as much human as technical finesse to unravel. If you're good at that, I can imagine you've done well. But effective communication is not a common trait among wildcards I've known. Most have been protected by excellent managers.
Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think your experience is common (it certainly resonates with me) so I’m certainly not trying to contradict you when I say that I think there exist tools to help with the problem you mention - but JIRA is not one of them. These days, I work on the basis that managing the backlog is actually the management problem that needs solving. With an appropriate tool (I like ProductBoard), I can group together related issues,…
I am the management
Judge Dredd vibes, made me chuckle. Kinda like when you are in the flow :
I am the software
Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?
#139Isn't this the jack of all trades?
my great-granddaddy used to praise someone saying "you can't hook 'em up wrong"
Your great-granddaddy sounds like a very smart man.
I think this phrase speaks volumes about the value of these folks (and not just in the startup world).
Even in large companies there are opportunities for improvement everywhere. Once we identify something of interest, wildcards are the folks I can rely on to help prove things out. They are versatile, autonomous and comfortable with ambiguity.
Once the system is up and rolling, it’s time to put in the maintainers and move on. That’s pretty much the game.
The trick, in a big company, is the opportunities usually lie in someone else’s “territory”. Relationships become hugely important, something I’m sure your great-granddaddy had no trouble with :)
Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
For example Google hires mostly generalists and lots of people who care about income and career progression work there.
Google does not. It hires a lot of specialists and fungible people.
Specialist and fungible are contradictory. It's true that they don't hire specialists - but there are only 7-8 different software profiles they look for.
1. ML 2. Systems 3. Product 4. Data engineer 5. SRE ....