Specialists VS Generalists: The Two Types of Career Path

Some careers are linear. They move in the simplest, most direct way possible from education, to qualification, to entry-level position. Other careers wander. They meander from role to role, allowing an employee to build up a diverse and broad perspective, gaining insights from multiple disciplines.

At first glance, it can seem like there’s a big difference between generalists and specialists and one can seem more appealing than the other. That said, take a closer look and you often find that the two have a lot more in common than first meets the eye.

So let’s talk about the difference between depth and breadth when it comes to your career, the value of each, and whether you should focus on becoming a generalist or a specialist in your discipline.

Jack of All Trades

When you hear the words ‘Jack of All Trades’, they’re often followed by the words ‘and master of none’. This is a common attitude about generalists and it’s an understandable viewpoint.

The further you spread yourself, so the logic goes, the harder it is to really focus on any one thing. The problem with this viewpoint is that it fails to take into account the value of a multi-disciplinary understanding. Or, to put it simply, sometimes understanding one thing helps you understand another.

For example, let’s say you want to become a world class composer. While it might be tempting, trying to learn every instrument there is, that probably won’t be the most productive use of your time. On the other hand, most composers do know how to play more than one instrument and learning more about the specifics of those instruments can help to push through a creative block.

While there’s a lot of knowledge that all composers will share, their specific experience with instruments is a part of what gives them a unique sound. Just like the music they chose to listen to, the instruments they have a deeper understanding of will influence their tastes and their creative choices.

All of this to say that there are times when it really isn’t about being a generalist vs being a specialist. Breadth and depth can complement one another.

It’s not just about creative disciplines either. Some careers require you to be both general and specific in your knowledge.

A surgeon has to know a lot about biology. From the anatomy of the human body to the complex microbiology that keeps us running, a surgeon shares a lot of knowledge in common with a researcher. At the same time, however, that surgeon has to have a highly specific knowledge of techniques, a depth of understanding that lets them safely perform complex operations.

The Career Specialist

It might sound like we’re trying to reject the idea of specialists and generalists altogether, and that’s certainly not the case. Instead, we’re suggesting that it’s less a binary and more a spectrum.

With that in mind, we should note that there are some career paths where it really does help to decide between being a generalist vs a specialist.

In software development, there are lots of generalist programmers out there – people who know a handful of common languages and frameworks and can comfortably jump into most projects. That’s a worthwhile career path to take but if you want to make a lot of money then it can be more valuable to find your niche.

One niche that’s been particularly valuable in recent years is the COBOL programming language. COBOL is commonly regarded as an archaic programming language – not intended for modern use cases – but many banks and other corporations still use software built in COBOL.

For the most part, these companies take an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mindset. This works well, right up until something goes wrong. That’s when they need someone with very specific expertise. If you’ve got those expertise, then you’re now in an excellent bargaining position.

The programming world is filled with these kinds of career opportunities. It just goes to show that sometimes it pays to be the big fish in a small pond.

Everyone Is A Generalist

To round things off, we’d like to say that, from a certain point of view, everyone is a generalist. No knowledge exists in a vacuum and your understanding of one subject is always going to be bolstered by your understanding of others.

The real value of thinking about specialists vs generalists in business terms, is all in how you sell yourself to employers. It’s about the narrative you choose to construct to explain your career path.

At the end of the day, no matter which box you fit into, remember that what’s really important is to keep learning, keep improving your skills, and to find a career that brings you joy.