How many of you folks here consider yourself specialist in a certain area? Was this deliberate, and has it paid off? My lead dev is always trying to bestow upon me the advantages of being a generalist in this industry, and yet the employers I have spoken to, on the whole, seem to get most excited by “experts”. If it fits the expert they, want, of course...

My sense is that “going deep in multiple areas” is the way to go, rather than scattering too thing, for the record. All the people that seem to know everything, are actually people who combed the depths of multiple fields over the course of a lifetime

I am a specialist at a few areas. But I always try to be aware of what else is there.

Digging a deep hole will give you a well. Digging many holes around the area will give you water. And will help you to see what dangers, treasures and possibilities lie under your feet.

Be an expert in your area[s] but also keep looking around.

To be successful as a generalist you need much more knowledge than being a specialist in a few.

So being interested in many areas while focusing in one or a few is in my opinion an easier way to start.

Once you have a couple of good specialties to keep you afloat it can be good to go broad as it will help you even within you specialities.

Becoming a good generalist takes a lot of time before it will be really appreciated unless you go for small or upstart company that does not have a real structure and that needs jack of all trades.

But its more difficult to get good pay that way as in each area you will be weighted against the experts in the area and thus get ranked lower.

Only when you actually is an expert in a few areas the general knowledge will start to count on top of the expertise.

There has to be a fit between your skills and your tasks.

If you are a consultant that switches projects often you need other skills then guys working on video compression for years.

So lookup your tasks and you may be find the needed skills and the depth of them.

I would consider myself a generalist, it wasn't intentional, i was just learning what i knew i need to know how to do because there'll be nobody to help me do it. And out of natural curiosity.

And it has somehow paid off for me, since in my country it seems to be rare for people to know this much about this many interconnected areas.