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Success at Work : Techniques : Should You be a "Jack of all trades" or a Specialist?
By Stephen Bucaro
A "jack of all trades" is an individual who is capable of accomplishing tasks in a wide range
of disciplines. For example, when I was an Electronics Engineer, I would design the electronics,
lay out the printed circuit board, design the mechanical components, and launch the product
into production. I envied the specialists because they just did their one little thing,
but they were highly paid and respected as experts.
In your own career, which is the best way to go? Should you be a "jack of all trades" or a
specialist? In this article, you'll learn the advantages and disadvantages of each approach,
and techniques to help you succeed in whichever path you take.
What Employers Want
Employers don't want a "jack of all trades" or a specialist, they want a "specialist of all
trades". They want someone who is expert in everything. Some companies will run the same job
ad, seeking this super-human, for years. If they could find this "specialist of all trades",
no matter how high the salary, they would save a ton of money by firing the rest of their staff.
Employers may use the phrase "jack of all trades" in the job ad, but the human resources
department will filter applications based on specialist keywords, like "tax accountant" or
"database programmer". If your resume mentions too many different specialties, it will filtered
out as being not focused enough. It's a lot easier to get a job if you're a specialist than it is
if you're a generalist.
But when the economy starts to tank, a company can't afford to have an expensive specialist
sitting at their desk playing solitaire. While at the same time, the lower cost "jack of all
trades" appears to be busy solving all kinds of critical problems. That's the advantage of
being a generalist, no matter how slow things are, there's always problems to solve.
Specialists are the first to be fired when the economy slows.
 Immediately after a
specialist gets fired, they will be replaced by a contractor, often the same individual.
The Stress of Being a "Jack of all trades"
Over the last several decades, business and industry have become highly technical. In order to
survive, a generalist must maintain a nominal level of proficiency in a wide range of technologies.
This requires a heavy sacrifice in their personal life. They keep up on their own time, without
pay. That's not to say that a specialist doesn't need to spend time keeping up with the latest
advances in their specialty. Companies understand a specialist's need to keep up and will often
pay for the specialist's training.
Companies expect the same quality of work from the generalist as they expect from the specialist.
But a generalist doesn't have the same depth of knowledge in any single discipline as a specialist.
That's why the phrase is usually stated: "Jack of all trades, master of none".
This can result in the generalist making more mistakes and producing a lower quality of work.
This explains why, although the "jack of all trades" may have vastly more overall skill and
knowledge, they receive lower pay than the specialist.
How to Succeed as a "Jack of All Trades"
The secret to being a successful "jack of all trades" is to know your limitations. Recognize
when you are capable of performimg a task good enough, and when you must call upon a specialist.
There is a symbiotic relationship between generalists and specialists. Specialists often make
mistakes because they don't understand how other areas effect their work.
For example, an Electronics Engineer may not understand the impact that the physical environment
has on an electronic design. A design that would work perfectly in a desktop computer will
fail in the dirty, humid, vibrating, electrically noisy environment of an earthmoving machine.
Or the Electronics Engineer might confidently add all kinds of extra features to a product.
The generalist knows the product's consumers don't need and won't pay for those extra features.
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