Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by codingdave 2035 days ago
I'd stop looking at the tech you use as your "thing", and look more at what you have built. Are there common threads behind the problems you have solved? The industries you have worked in? As your career progresses, those are your niche, not the specific tech you used on a project or two.
1 comments

This also varies across the board from issue trackers, image libraries, renderfarms, security related tools and so on. But it might help me to sit down and try and consider what commonality exists between the projects I've worked on and have a think about it from there. Thanks
I think as a counterpoint I’d offer that you don’t need to find a common thread. Breadth is a value in its own right. Demonstrating that you have such a wide base of experience shows that you can adapt to new challenges, and reduces the applicability of any lack of direct prior experience. Finding a common thread may help you refine your own ambitions, and that’s great. But you don’t need to sell a specialist narrative to explain your generalist background. Embrace it! A lot of roles value it over specialization!

All of that said, regardless of what larger orgs may say about preferring candidates who can be effective across the org, I think you’ll find that generalists are more valued in smaller teams/startups/etc. And if that’s your cup of tea, go for it! There’s a ton of business [co]founders looking for someone with a broad skillset.