Hear hear. Whether a generalist or a specialist, hubris will bite you. ---- Raffi
On Aug 15, 2009, at 10:35 PM, Michael Douglas <[email protected]> wrote: >> jack of all trades messed up the environment > > OK this is the one area where I wasn't too clear on the earlier > thread. I'm assuming that you are competent in everything that you > say you're going to do. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. There > are many Jerks of All Trades who will mess things up badly. > > > For those who mentioned it above, yes being a generalist does tend to > get you in the small and medium sized businesses... but there are > exceptions... take my day job for instance. For those of you who > don't know, I work at OCLC -- a non-profit library coop. We're what > I'd consider large. We have over 72,000 libraries in our collective. > We have a database with holdings information on about 1.2 billion (yes > billion) records (books and other stuff). We have a few thousand > servers... yet they hired me... A generalist! > > I'm a generalist... but a big part of my ability to get things done is > admitting what I don't know. For instance, a big part of my skill > with forensics is how I DON'T mess up data. If things get to hairy > for me, I can wrap things up and call in folks who are better than me > (and remember, there ALWAYS is someone better than you -- thinking > otherwise is the first step on the path to destruction) > > knowing when to sit down and hack or when to walk away is probably the > greatest skill anyone in computers can have! > > - Mick > > > On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 2:42 PM, John Navarro<[email protected]> wrote: >> Good point Tim! >> Robert, I do think that a "jack of all trades" type will fit in >> better to >> smaller companies, whereas the specialized, from my experience, >> seem to have >> a better chance at getting into larger corporations. It was never my >> intention to be "specialized", but having worked at a firewall >> vendor it was >> just easier to find those opportunities that required a specific >> skillset. >> Of course it could be that the jack of all trades messed up the >> environment >> and they needed someone specialized to come in and clean it up ;) >> >> On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 8:16 AM, Tim Krabec <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> >>> Don't forget your specialization does not have to be computer/ >>> program >>> related >>> >>> You don't have to specialize in "forensic analysis of devorak >>> keyboards >>> for AS/400 systems >>> emulating Apple IIc systems" >>> You could specialize in database recovery for small businesses. >>> Or BCP & >>> DR for law offices or real estate companies. >>> >>> -- >>> Tim Krabec >>> Kracomp >>> 772-597-2349 >>> smbminute.com >>> kracomp.blogspot.com >>> www.kracomp.com >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Pauldotcom mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom >>> Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Pauldotcom mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom >> Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com >> > _______________________________________________ > Pauldotcom mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com _______________________________________________ Pauldotcom mailing list [email protected] http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com
