Master of All or Master of None

I talked to Anna who is extremely skilled in one area, but she’s talking to companies that want her to have experience in multiple areas.

I also talked to a CEO who was telling me about his company and how they can do everything...just like all the other companies.

There is a delicate balance between knowing a little about everything or a lot about something. When you know a lot about one thing, you have less opportunities, but when the right one comes along, they are willing to pay for your expertise. However, when you know a little about everything, there will be a day when you are asked to go out of your depth and there are likely many people in your same situation. Why would they call you?

Let’s think about a few things to future-proof your career:

1. What if your primary skills are no longer in demand?

2. If you were going to take a class, what would you want to learn?

3. How many people or companies are out there that do what you do?

4. Do you enjoy what you do or are you stuck in it?

5. Are you getting a lot of work or finding it difficult?

6. Again, why would they call you vs. someone else? (Beyond that you’re amazing!)

The ideal approach is to have a specialty, but still be able to do other areas. I spoke with a CFO from another company who said people always know when to call them because of their specialization, but they can do the full suite. This is genius! I would also trust they could pivot to another platform based on this specialization if they ever needed to as well.

If you need help identifying how to branch out, think about all the areas your main specialty touches and become familiar with one or two of those. Alternatively, you could focus on transferrable skills like project or product management.

A key consideration that hasn’t been mentioned yet is that at a larger organization, you’ll be able to focus more on a single area where at a smaller organization, you’ll be asked to wear many hats. I like to tell people to focus first on figuring out the type of work they enjoy and then separately think about where they’d want to work. Only you can determine your path to ‘success.’

In the conversation I had with the CEO mentioned at the beginning of this article, he mentioned a specific tool and things his company could do related to that tool. Yes, his company can do everything, but this should be his specialty. I told him so, too. If you are a unicorn who doesn’t know what makes them sparkle, let’s talk.

Thank you for reading! I really hope it’s helpful. If you respond to this e-mail, I’ll write back.