[lollipop25]

> Scared because I don't have a degree and at 30 I'm competing with younger, new grads.

10 years work experience > fresh grad with a degree that has no idea what lies ahead. You know the ins and outs of companies, the kind of people you deal with, you don't throw tantrums, deadlines are deadlines.

> I've built banner ads for advertisers, booked online campaigns in various platforms Google DFP, Yahoo APT.

Yep, experience in different platforms is a huge plus.

> I'm a jack of all trades master of none. I've always taken that as an insult rather than a compliment. I hear it as "your mediocre at a bunch of things...not really good at anything."

I hear it as "I know that much, too much." Being a jack of all trades means you know enough to move around. Your wide range of experience allows you to look for a wider range of jobs. You are more flexible to position change. You are no stranger to being moved across projects, across people, across locations.

> what advice do you have for a 30 year old who's about to embark on a new adventure?

- Read up on the latest trends. Most job interviews will have questions about them (though the job itself may not actually use the latest tech).

- Be sharp, concise and confident in job interviews. I've heard from my co-workers who do the interviews for new candidates. They find resumes good, but they fail candidates because they were terrible at interviews.

- Up the ante. Take up higher positions. You probably make a good project manager with that 10 years around people.

[argonaut]

I wouldn't be so optimistic about the "jack of all trades" point. The problem there is that, as a generalist, that's one less leg up you'll have on new grads (who are also usually interviewing for generalist positions).

[notahacker]

Someone with ten years' experience shouldn't be applying for the same jack-of-all trades positions as fresh grads. He should be applying for positions where a few years experience keeping a revenue-generating site going is a minimum requirement.

[67726e]

Well there are two possibilities. You can work a job for 10 years but if you learned the duties of the job in 6 months and just went on auto-pilot for the next 9.5 you're gonna be in the same boat as new grads. On the other hand if you learned and advanced in your field over those 10 years, then yes you will be looking for higher level jobs than entry-level code monkey jobs.

[fuzzywalrus]

I had two "jack of all of all trades, master of none" for a cumulative of 5 years out of college.

Life got considerably better as I started specializing towards a track of Front End Development. There's a huge gulf between being the guy who can write spaghetti JS and CSS to developer but its doable, although it was much easier 6 years ago when left the Jack-Of-All-Trades. I'd suggest picking a part of your skill set if you have extended downtime and trying to level up. Having a broad skillset won't hurt you, but not having anything technical will.