Ask HN:What job roles are suitable for a generalist? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN:What job roles are suitable for a generalist?

11 pointsconfuzed15 comments

Pardon me for the new account but I'm long time HN reader and poster, just wanted to remain anonymous.

I know there are a lot of really smart people on HN and if possible I'd like to get their opinion on this.

Let me explain: I consider myself generalist, i.e. I do not have one special skill. I'm not hardcore/technical enough to be high end developer/hacker or sysadmin. On the other hand I understand business and marketing things quite well.

In the past I worked as a web developer(frontend and backend), IT support person(windows), sysadmin(Linux), ERP developer, even tried freelancing. After couple of freelancing years I got into financial trouble and had to quickly find a new job. Then I started to work at position with mixed responsibilities - 50% IT and 50% computer unrelated activities. Only then I understood that I'm good at business decisions and dealing with people. I successfully solved few big problems in the office between employees and manager. A lot of things that improved our operations(IT and non-IT) was suggested by me. Unfortunately I do not get credit for this. My manager gets all the recognition.

Now I'm little bit lost if I should try to specialize in something and earn better paycheck(I have a family) or try to move into non-technical role.

What would you advice to do at this point in life for a generalist?

What job roles would you suggest for a person who is technical enough to read code but also is business savvy?

P.S. Just in case it's important I'm not from US, I live in small Eastern European country, but considering to move to a better place.

tl;dr What job roles include dealing with technical and business side of things?

Sounds like you could easily transition into a number of roles... maybe project management, maybe business analyst, maybe even product management, or just general engineering management. Or if you really like the business side of things, but want something with a technical flavor, study up on business process improvement stuff and set yourself up as a consultant in that space. Or you could focus on software process, IT management, etc. and do something there.

I'm not necessarily advocating any of this buzzword stuff in the general sense, but... if firms in your part of the world are using CMMI, or Six Sigma or ITIL or any sort of formal methodology for managment / process improvement, you could probably make bank by specializing in one of those areas. If Agile methods are popular, you could become an Agile consultant.

Or you could become a lean startup pirate ninja rockstar and specialize in helping startups iterate. [1]

[1]: http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2011/01/lean-startup-ju...

I am in total agreement with MindCrime. If you are both technically savvy and business savvy and have solid communication skills, being able to understand and translate the needs of both business groups back and forth is a very valuable skill set.

Project Management is a place that you can leverage all of your skills while contributing materially to a business and still continue to be a generalist, assuming that is what you want to continue to be. In your particular case it sounds like you enjoy being more hands on, so a business analyst role might not be the best fit for you, however it is always something to consider, if the job were at a company that you felt you just had to be part of.

There has been significant demand for technical project managers over the last decade and I didn't see that changing anytime soon, which is always encouraging for those that like to change jobs regularly or are worried about their long-term employment prospects. Plus it is a great way to be involved in many different projects across the breadth of a company.

Project Managers often find their way into upper management over the long haul because of their intimate knowledge of so many different corporate functions. So if long term, senior leadership is something you have a desire for, this is not a bad route to go.

Project management is another good option, though I wouldn't want technical things being replaced by paperwork.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Thanks for the ideas. That link with the movie about startup iteration was really funny.

I'm familiar with ITIL. At work we calculate our SLAs etc. So that might be an option after all.

Being a generalist is difficult. All of the positions I've held in the past 10 years were landed because the interviewer recognized my intelligence/problem solving ability and could look past whatever specific skill or language that I did not have traditional experience in.

BAs in a software shop can straddle that tech/biz line (I HAVE PEOPLE SKILLS DAMMIT!) sometimes... I think it's really a function of finding the right place and the right people that can recognize the value of having a "utility infielder" on their team.

I don't have much else to offer besides encouragement from another generalist or as I like to describe myself as a geeky/techie product manager.

good luck!

somewhat related:

http://lostmahbles.com/land-dream-dev-job-without-web-experi...

Thanks for your support.

Finding a "right" company can be challenging indeed.

Wonderland! People do answer questions like this an they do it in imposingly practical way! (as for a person from Central Europe it is a surprise) Is there a chance for a long experience business sensitive creative person with a lineup of new brands ideas as well? Do only technical geeks have a chance in new business development? What/where could an advice be?

Yes! I was pleasantly surprised myself. That just means that HN is really good place.

Regarding your questions: you could follow advice mindcrime gave earlier, in 3 easy steps :)

I think I'm in a similar situation and I have a question: how does one switch careers to Lean, ITIL or CMMI without necessary experience under his belt?

There are multiple ways, but some quick thoughts:

0. Buy and read books, read blogs, watch youtube videos, whatever, and gain as much knowledge as you can, on whatever field you decide to pursue (Lean, Six Sigma, Agile, CMMI, whatever.)

1. Take a class (or classes) on your new endeavour. Any kind of introduction to the topic that's something you can document and put on your resume is a start.

2. Get some sort of certification in that field, if you can afford it. Yeah, I know certifications are of dubious value, but it's better than nothing (usually) and some firms actually place a lot of stock in that sort of thing. Just don't think of certifications as a "magic bullet" but rather as just another arrow in your quiver.

3. Now may have a to cheat a little bit. What I mean is... if your current job doesn't involve using, say, Six Sigma, start by learning as much as you can. See above. Then start talking about it at work, have a hallway conversation with your boss if nothing else. Try to legitimately wrangle a way to redefine your current job to include some element of that ("Boss, can we apply Six Sigma techniques to managing $SOMETHING?"). Ideally he/she says yes, and now you can legitimately list experience with that topic... but if not, just keep talking about it, write some reports on it and send them to people, and then - when talking about your old job - mention how you "spearheaded an initiative to implement Six Sigma, blah, blah, blah..."

And from here, you just working to fight your way into a new job doing your chosen $WHATEVER, by hook or by crook.

One other little note about the above... your current boss might not be to eager to let you totally redefine your current job, but - assuming your doing a good job already and aren't considered a slacker / loser - you can usually get away with asking to do something extra. Take advantage of that to squirm your way into whatever new thing it is you want to do. You may have to jump ship to a new job to complete the switcheroo, but the initial goal is just to get a beachhead.

I think the fastest route into project management can be had through the business analyst role. Basically if you're already on top of the requirements, work with the customers well, manage your own work well, report risky/unclear areas quickly and can manage the technical people to clear them up fast... you're practically project managing already.

I've rarely ran into good business analysts. They are often failed developers, because they lack the right mindset. But if you are smart and think technical, just don't enjoy the programming, you'll quickly become one of the best BA's around... and then you'll get promoted! And all will lament the loss :P

If you don't mind... Could you elaborate a bit what do you mean by saying "[...]they lack the right mindset" ? What is the "right mindset" for developer?

I think you have to think logically and be able to make cognitive jumps.

For example realising that process A must be rolled back if midway though - therefore it is essentially an atomic transaction with all that entails. Or that the user opening a bunch of spreadsheets for a specific piece of data to fill in another form, is really just a key-value pair lookup on a relatively static dataset.

Bad business analysts I've encountered fail to understand the core process they are designing around, or take the user's explanation as gospel, even when there are gaping holes in the logic. They often define processes which to a developer are a simple problem that has been solved in many situations, in a completely odd way, where they have failed to make a conceptual leap from the problem they are solving, to one solved in other parts of the same system.

This recipe should be called "3 easy steps to become Six Sigma consultant". You could even write an ebook and sell it on the internet :)

On a serious note - I think the pattern is clear and it could be replicated successfully on different areas of life. Thank you for taking your time to present it here.

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