[sph]

Makes sense, but I do not completely agree.

In my 11 years of experience as a consultant, people hire me because they need a square zinc sink fixed, but as soon as they see that I know much more than that, they ask me to redo the living room wall and trim the topiary.

Being an expert gets me through the door, being a generalist keeps me around.

The problem is that the square sink expert filter is the biggest obstacle to getting a contract. Reason why with 17 years of total experience, I'm still without a job after 4 months, my longest jobless stint in my entire career (to be fair, I'm pivoting towards starting my own business rather than keep being rejected by clueless recruiters)

[thrixton]

This makes total sense to me as both an employer and for hiring contractors. Sure, if it’s easy to find a square sink expert (it’s usually not), then select for that, generally though, my needs are more varied than that, even if that’s my immediate need and I’d prefer a targeted generalist to be able to solve my immediate problem with a short ramp up time and then hopefully go on to provide value in other areas.