[throwaway0a5e]

There is no skill that doesn't require upkeep over 20yr.

Everything that was valuable in 2001 is still of about the same value now. But the mechanics who didn't want to diagnose electronics and the accountants who refused to learn computers and the programmers who only wanna write php have seen their skills reduced in value because they did not maintain currency.

Being responsible for the work output of other people and doing your job somewhere unpleasant or dangerous pretty much always increases your pay.

[rubicon33]

This is so hard to do in an industry that also heavily rewards specialists.

I've been regularly asked by my employer to change role to help some other part of the business. Whether it was switching from mobile to server, server to front end web, or switching frameworks / tools within those domains, I always made the switch.

The problem is that now I'm a jack of all trades, and a master of none.

[throwaway98797]

Redine yourself as a problem solver vs. just a tool box.

“I’m a master generlized problem solving machine, how can I be of service?”

[rubicon33]

Yes, well, I can't help but look around at people who have chosen to specialize and see how much quicker they climb into leadership roles, and getting to work on mission critical features.

If you're the jack of all trades guy, you'll always be asked to cleanup, or take care of small feature requests. When the company needs the big guns for a mission critical feature, you will never be called.

This is an important point for people to realize. There's risks at specializing for sure, but there's also a lot of risk to being a jack of all trade.

[throwaway98797]

Despite the semi trolly comment history on this profile, i was able to climb the ladder by knowing ONE thing extremely well and then being a generlist in everything else.

Granted i climbed the ladder in mid size non-hot companies so may not be applicable.

Im currently a consultant in my trade and I appear to sell this ONE thing but in every case i end up solving problems as a generilist.

Is there a chance that you can claim that you are already an expert in one the things you do? sometimes other people’s bar for expertise is lower than yours.

[prewett]

How diverse are the experiences you are generalizing from? Companies are different, so you'll need to sample from lots of different ones. You can also try talking to your manager about what your career goals are and what needs to change to get there. It sounds like you might just need to be in a team / company where your skills and matches the mission critical features, so you could look for transfer opportunities. Or if you don't care about the "leadership" route, you can opt out and try contracting / consulting. Every client wants a different set of experiences, so jack-of-all-trades is more likely to hit on multiple skills.