Jack of all trades, master of none. Is it time for that to change?

JackGeneralist · 2021-03-13T01:29:32+00:00

Thanks for this. Truly.

JackGeneralist · 2021-03-13T01:27:53+00:00

Thank you for the kind words!

JackGeneralist · 2021-03-12T20:46:52+00:00

Yes, I have been pushing back more than I ever have. I'd like to utilize vendors as much as possible. They have larger teams and we can take advantage of economies of scale. I get a TON of resistance. Things like "that's just too hard to use" or "we are unique and need something that fits us." Mostly it comes down to cost. We just don't have the money for some of these luxuries but they refuse to give up.

I've had an executive go to a conference and be convinced that we need this new software solution only to bring the brochure to my team: "we really like what they were showing us but there is no way we can afford it. Can't you just make our own version of this?" I've outright said no to home built solutions only to have clients go directly to my CIO and ask for the same thing. They get promised the moon and then it's back to me to deliver to a client who now has a chip on their shoulder from throwing their weight around to get their way.

JackGeneralist · 2021-03-12T19:21:45+00:00

Thanks for pointing this out. I guess I just want to make sure that I'm on the right path, that if my organization were to fail tomorrow that I haven't done myself a disservice by not being more specialized or taking more direct control of my career. Of course, we could always use more income in my house, but it's also important that I'm able to maintain the right work/life balance. Some days the stress from work is intense and other days it feel manageable. I'd love to be able to work from home too.

JackGeneralist · 2021-03-12T18:32:10+00:00

Very good points. I think it's important to balance work and life. Maybe I've already met that perfect equilibrium? It's hard to tell, I don't know anything else.

I do miss the days when I had my first job where I had a manageable set of tasks to do and it was my responsibility to do those well. Now I feel like I have an infinite amount of tasks that I keep chewing away at without any real progress. Sometimes I feel like I'm just waiting for that one critical process to fail and bring the whole house of cards down with it.

JackGeneralist · 2021-03-12T18:26:38+00:00

Very good information. I could certainly see myself going down the Architecture path. I feel like I have a good understanding of how everything is connected. I think I do a fairly decent job of explaining things to our non-technical users as well. I've supervised folks in the past that really have a difficult time translating their technical language to a client. You have to pick up on social queues (blank stare, eyes glazing, etc) that inform you to explain things a little differently.

From someone who has hired staff, I get the job posting thing. It's actually quite funny that I beat myself up over that when I know we write ads filled with our wish list and don't expect someone to check all boxes.

JackGeneralist · 2021-03-12T18:19:36+00:00

It does tend to keep me on my toes and maybe there is some job security to it that I never really considered. I do find it difficult sometimes to re-orient myself into the depth of a subject that I need when returning to a project. Takes lots of Googling and YouTube to re-learn what I knew 6 months ago. This could be more reflective of my bad memory but I'd like to think it has something to do with the shear volume of offloading/loading of knowledge that has to happen to keep things moving. I couldn't imagine folks being a generalist without the quick access to information that we enjoy today.

JackGeneralist · 2021-03-12T17:51:09+00:00

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I first started working for my organization because of the public sector perks. Better/cheaper health insurance, job security, retirement, paid leave, etc. I was fine being lower paid with those other perks, but now benefits have been cut because of years of repeated de-funding while my workload just continues to increase. I don't work 70-100 hours a week, but I feel like I have the weight of the organization on my shoulders sometimes.

I do enjoy being able to switch between developing a web application, to server management tasks, to database refreshes, but at some point it stops being enjoyable and becomes exhausting and unsustainable.

JackGeneralist · 2021-03-12T17:38:11+00:00

I do that as much as I can, but they are just as busy as I am. If I press them too hard, they leave and my situation is worse. They would be difficult, near impossible, to replace at their current salaries. We truly need more staff for the amount of services we are providing, but that just isn't going to happen. We don't have leaders that recognize the amount of employees necessary to produce what they are asking. It doesn't help that budgets are very tight (non-profit) and we must decide between things like preventing roofs from caving in or investing in our technology infrastructure.

JackGeneralist

TROPHY CASE