the full quote goes: jack of all trades master of none but better than a master of one.
Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
171–180 of 217 posts
Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
#172As a Research Software Engineer (https://us-rse.org/what-is-an-rse/) you will have a chance to work on challenging projects that require wide technical experience and a lot of learning.
Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
#173I have a wide-ranging self-taught skill set as well that I've developed over the last 14 years of running my own businesses. I'll share what I'm doing from a high level as it might not be the most common path. I've been acquiring small but promising businesses that don't have the right team in place to move them forward. I bootstrap them on my own and replace my roles as the business can afford staff. Once enough rol…
I support this approach. I learned a lot about online marketing and selling physical products by purchasing a struggling online shop. There's even dedicated web pages like flippa.com or empireflippers.com
Once you purchased the shop which resources did you use? Where did you purchase from? And have you gone on to do more deals since then?
Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
#174Depends what your trades are. Devops/security jack of all trades are super in demand for consulting.
Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
#175Not what I'm up to presently, but I would advise you to not worry about title and really shoot for company size and sector. In a nutshell, big companies hire specialized cogs, small companies hire general purpose cogs. If you want to be able to roam about and do everything, go for companies that are small but need the skills of a generalist to get them going.
Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
#176Product 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
I think i love most things product manager except for probably the most important thing, managing people. Yeah, that is not my cup of tea.
a product manager generally does not manage people, they manage what people work on, and project manage.
Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
#177Smaller companies need generalists more than big ones do. You’re likely best off in early stage startups, small agencies, or your own consulting business. There are also incubators and such who can use that skillset to help bootstrap multiple startups per year.
> 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 wouldn't say Google et al hire a lot of generalists per se, more like they hire generics: people who intellectually know fundamentals to a depth that can be used for anything, vs. generalists, who have experience in a range of things and an amount of big-picture sense. Generics don't need experience to be useful, generalists don't need fundamentals, so to speak. (IMO, rhetorical, not hard-and-fast rules, don't @ me)
Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
#178While I'm probably going to be marked down as usual, what makes you think you're the smartest person in the room? Doesn't sound like it from the description you gave.
Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
#179[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What job can a “jack of all trades” look for?
#180I have seen this so many times it isn't even funny. Talented people start off their career at a startup and then kind of camp there forever. The "Hate being the smartest person in the room" quote is classic as well. You end up being the best programmer you ever met because... well... you are at the top of your little mound. It's not even that you are necessarily the smartest or best in your group. But who is going to challenge you? It's a no go from the start.
Young (in experience) programmers need to move around a fair bit early in their careers, IMHO. It's good for getting perspective and seeing things from different points of view. But it isn't all roses and sunshine. It will be very challenging in a number of ways, but if you don't do it you will stagnate.
So what should you do? Get a job in an area and do your best. Don't try to do everything. Try to learn from others. Get to see their perspective. Do it wrong many, many times so that you can really understand why it is wrong. Or why (surprisingly) it is not.
But most important of all, don't try to do it all. I'm sorry to say this, but you are not a big fish in a small pond (yet). You are a fish that doesn't yet know what "big" means, or else you would have asked a very different question. What potential you have to grow will be determined by the attitude with which you take your next steps.