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Old 09-05-2017, 05:10 PM
 
1,115 posts, read 2,485,431 times
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Curious to see people's thoughts on this. I personally have always been a jack of all trades, master of none for as long as I can remember, and still am. Very quick learner, adapts to changes easily, hardly bad at anything but not truly great at anything either. Unfortunately, I've not found this to be a beneficial trait in many careers since most employers are ideally looking for that perfect T-Shaped employee, you know, a specialist in one area but also good at a lot of other things, in other words, jack of all trades, Master of ONE.

What do people feel are good career options/path for a jack of all trades, master of none? Maybe a business owner or business manager? Maybe something more unconventional? Curious to hear people's thoughts!
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Old 09-05-2017, 05:23 PM
 
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Any mid-level generalist or admin type role. Not sure there are any specific limitations other than probably not a highly-specialized type role.
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Old 09-05-2017, 05:44 PM
 
Location: Texas
3,251 posts, read 2,528,187 times
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Find something that you're good at, and preferably also enjoy and put a little more time and effort into it.

You can still be decent at everything else but it helps to have a specialty.
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Old 09-05-2017, 05:52 PM
 
12,098 posts, read 16,979,394 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the_grimace View Post
Curious to see people's thoughts on this. I personally have always been a jack of all trades, master of none for as long as I can remember, and still am. Very quick learner, adapts to changes easily, hardly bad at anything but not truly great at anything either. Unfortunately, I've not found this to be a beneficial trait in many careers since most employers are ideally looking for that perfect T-Shaped employee, you know, a specialist in one area but also good at a lot of other things, in other words, jack of all trades, Master of ONE.

What do people feel are good career options/path for a jack of all trades, master of none? Maybe a business owner or business manager? Maybe something more unconventional? Curious to hear people's thoughts!
My advice would be to keep trying new careers until you find something you like most.

Of course, as you just posted in my other thread, that is very difficult to do...
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Old 09-05-2017, 10:24 PM
 
Location: Texas
13,480 posts, read 8,287,453 times
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Office Manager. This is a greatly diversified role.
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Old 09-05-2017, 10:30 PM
 
Location: NE Mississippi
25,332 posts, read 16,968,932 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the_grimace View Post
Curious to see people's thoughts on this. I personally have always been a jack of all trades, master of none for as long as I can remember, and still am. Very quick learner, adapts to changes easily, hardly bad at anything but not truly great at anything either. Unfortunately, I've not found this to be a beneficial trait in many careers since most employers are ideally looking for that perfect T-Shaped employee, you know, a specialist in one area but also good at a lot of other things, in other words, jack of all trades, Master of ONE.

What do people feel are good career options/path for a jack of all trades, master of none? Maybe a business owner or business manager? Maybe something more unconventional? Curious to hear people's thoughts!
Sales. Especially where the product requires extensive product knowledge. Your innate curiosity will make you an ideal candidate, and your superior product knowledge will eat the competition alive.

At least it worked that way for me.
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Old 09-06-2017, 05:18 AM
 
Location: The DMV
6,557 posts, read 11,182,971 times
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I think this is more of a company specific trait than one that will serve you well career wise. You often see more of these types in smaller organizations where they simply don't have the need or (budget) to have specialized experts in every area. Working in IT, the smaller organizations are the ones that will have one or two IT admins that is also responsible for networking, security, system administration as well as help desk. In the sense, the end up done a bit of everything. And it works for that company. As you get to larger companies, they have enough need for dedicated network engineers, security teams, etc.

Everyone can benefit from having more knowledge - thus they are seen as a jack of all trades by their peers. However, the issue remains the second part of that phrase. As you move up the ranks, having a specific area of expertise that is needed by your employer will make you harder to replace.

Of course, you can also make the argument that being too much of an expert may make you harder to promote.
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Old 09-06-2017, 08:22 AM
 
5,462 posts, read 3,003,275 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the_grimace View Post
Curious to see people's thoughts on this. I personally have always been a jack of all trades, master of none for as long as I can remember, and still am. Very quick learner, adapts to changes easily, hardly bad at anything but not truly great at anything either. Unfortunately, I've not found this to be a beneficial trait in many careers since most employers are ideally looking for that perfect T-Shaped employee, you know, a specialist in one area but also good at a lot of other things, in other words, jack of all trades, Master of ONE.

What do people feel are good career options/path for a jack of all trades, master of none? Maybe a business owner or business manager? Maybe something more unconventional? Curious to hear people's thoughts!
Politician. Do something once and get rewarded for life. For eg, see the Obamacare repeal bill. Clearly they dont know anything but they have to show something.
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