In 2009 Become a Generalist AND a Specialist to Keep Your Job

January 2, 2009 at 3:46 pm | In Career Development, Futures, Personal Branding, Positioning, Success Strategies | 8 Comments

When it comes to personal branding, I typically recommend that you become the master of your domain (a niche) instead of trying to position yourself for a large, saturated and boring topic. Well, the economic landscape has changed and you can’t just succeed by being a specialist within a corporation. If you’re an entrepreneur and have a steady business, focused on a niche, then this disregard this blog post. The new means that in order to keep your job, you must be flexible (easy adapt to business changes), learning new functions within your business, and networking outside of your group or organization, while still specializing.

The role of a specialist

A specialist aligns their passion with a specific skill set and contrives a personal brand statement from that. Specialists become the go-to-people in and out of the office. Sometimes a specialist is a natural at what they do, while other times, they have to work very hard to perfect their knowledge in a specific area. Malcolm Gladwell states that it takes 10,000 areas to assume mastery over something in his new book, Outliers. Specialists get called upon when a certain opportunity surfaces or when there is a business challenge that can only be handled by someone of that caliber. As a specialist, you may have to learn complimentary skills as well. Earn an MBA online and brand yourself as a specialist.

The role of a generalist

Generalists have to have a good, not perfect, understanding of a broader topic and many topics across a business. Don’t listen to people that say being a generalist is a waste of time. When I was in school, my resume building strategy was 100% focused on being a generalist. I had 8 internships that covered every single area of marketing and a consulting business. I purposely took classes in marketing research, advertising and other marketing disciplines in order to have flexibility and a wider selection of company’s to choose from upon graduation. Behind my generalist cap, it was clear to the hiring managers that my strengths lied in internet marketing, web development and design. A lot of corporate leadership development programs help you become a generalist and give you generalist titles. The higher up the corporate ladder you go, the more of a generalist you have to be.

When both come together

Being a specialist and a generalist simultaneously is the best route to being successful in a good or bad economy, but it 10x more important in a bad one. For instance, let’s say you specialize in social media PR, but generalize in all of marketing. Your company is going to outsource the PR organization, but sees that you can add value in a product marketing or a communications role. Instead of being laid off like your peers, you get a new job. I’ve already heard these stories multiple times since October. You need to start learning other areas of the business, while mastering a specialty. This of course means you have to work much harder!

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  1. [...] to write a basic job description for your blogging will give you a better feel for exactly what you expect of yourself as a blogger and help you define your niche. It will also give you a better idea of the amount of [...]

    Pingback by Want to Be a Better Blogger? Treat it Like the Job it Is at Personal PR — January 2, 2009 #

  2. Dan,
    Great perspective! I would like to add that it is advisable for any specialist to seek knowledge in areas that may not be complementary to their area of expertise.
    Majority of my career has been in business operations. I found that most successful folks I worked with were at least “dangerous” enough in areas that had nothing to do with their work. For example: for someone in marcomm understanding of finance, IT, business operations, and human capital would be a huge value-add opportunity.

    Personally, my specialization is in self-funded and angel-funded startup business operations, but I always found opportunities to dive deep into areas as far apart as hardware virtualization and venture capital, social media and intrusion prevention, human capital management and ergonomics (to mention few).

    Besides providing value to the organization, this broad understanding of other areas of business helps you build report with the rest of your team. And who does not need better communications with his/her team.

    Apolinaras “Apollo” Sinkevicius
    http://www.LeanStartups.com

    Comment by Apolinaras Sinkevicius — January 2, 2009 #

  3. It seems that in todays world you need to be a generalist in more niche areas as well. For example I am relatively new to the internet marketing world and there are many different areas to know and understand. Because things change all the time, its even getting harder to be a generalist.

    Comment by Craig — January 2, 2009 #

  4. [...] In 2009 Become a Generalist AND a Specialist to Keep Your Job [...]

    Pingback by Интересното от блоговете през изминалата седмица | Дневникът на един Gregg — January 3, 2009 #

  5. I have been a generalist in my field for over 20 years. By having such a wide understanding of marketing, fundraising, business, budgeting/finance and nonprofit management, I’ve been able to have a wide variety of top positions where I can have an impact on the organization. The trick is to find people you can call on if there is a specific issue you need help to resolve, and on knowing when to call these individuals.

    Comment by Cheri — January 4, 2009 #

  6. Great overview. I have always been advised to specialise more into the sports marketing niche as a brand and marketing manager for football clubs. Now after 5 years of experience, I am still diving into other areas. Only recently I acquired Flash, and am continuisly developing my photoshop skills. I think if you want to grow professionally, one of the routes is the general understanding of all marketing aspects. My new hobby – online marketing. Lets see how far I get…

    Comment by Karina Goldberg — January 4, 2009 #

  7. [...] program. Dan McCarthy has excellent advice on developing your high potential generalists, and also warns of pitfalls to [...]

    Pingback by Specialists, Generalists & 10,000 hours « TalentedApps — January 7, 2009 #

  8. [...] You’ve been hearing that in a tough economy like ours, you need learn to be a jack-of-all-trades, pick up the slack. That may be true, but you can still rock your niche. In a recent post, Dan Schawbel suggests you can become a specialist and a generalist. [...]

    Pingback by Girl Meets Business | Three work essentials: Rock, Paper, Scissors — January 8, 2009 #


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