Specialist vs Generalist

NightShade1

Hello
I was wondering how many of you are specilist and how many are generalist and what you think are the pros and cons of both

Ill start
Im a generalist

Pros:
1-When you go to a network with a problem and they tell you hey since you install that firewall my internet its slow, yes it wasnt the firewall but i was able to demostrate it was something with their dns server forwarder pointing to a random ip that didnt exist(true history)
What i mean its easy to troubleshoot and find the problem when the problem is not the equipment you installed.
2-Its easy to find a job elsewhere or if for some reason let say for example servers is not paying that good anymore you can switch to full networking and there is no issue

Cons:
1-You have to study a way more
2-You need to have a big library of notes of how to do stuff at least i do have it cause you dont do it too often then you forget some steps and also to troubleshoot you dont even remenber all the commands to troubleshoot or you know there is acommand that does something but you dont remenber which is it cause you dont use it rarely and stuff like that.
For my luck in our company we have a really complete laboratory so i can test the installations or configs, or simulates situations before going to the client letting me create a checklist. Maybe i woudlnt need this being a specialist as i do it all the time and i just have everything in my memory


I have to tell that in some countries being specialist doesn't work that well like in mine... for example in my country will be harder to find a job as a specialist well at least thats what i see on the newspapers or jobs advertisment, they want you to know everything

ptilsen

I'll say I'm a generalist, though I'm starting to feel like a specialist.

The big advantage to me is like you said: You can be much, much better at troubleshooting. A generalist has to understand how everything works from layer 1 to 7 in a given environment, and has to be able to identify and fix any broken component. There's none of this "blame the network guy" or "blame the sysadmin" I hear so much about, because you're both. It's also a lot more fun, because you get to do enough of everything. Troubleshooting the same limited set of software and/or hardware gets boring pretty quickly.

The disadvantage to being a true generalist is that eventually, your employment options become limited. You can either work in the SMB world or move into security, in which you'll eventually cease being a generalist anyway.

erpadmin

I will be the first to sum this up....

A generalist=Jack of All Trades...Master of None.

In the beginning of one's IT career, being a generalist is VERY important. When you start to find a niche that you want to explore more into (in my case, it was database administration), that's when one needs to become a specialist. However, just because you become a specialist, that doesn't give you a license to forget all the other facets of IT that got you to be a specialist in the first place; you still have to retain and expand your generalist skillset to some degree (otherwise, how can you intelligently troubleshoot connectivity?)

Keep in mind that no matter what path you're on, you, yourself, will never know everything. That's ok though, because that's what Google is for. [Anyone who says they don't use Google for their job/career is full of ----. EVERYONE does it.]

odysseyelite

I've been a generalist and trying to become a specialist. Like the other poster said "Master of None." I got tired of getting calls for lower level jobs than I wanted. I kept getting desktop and helpdesk calls. You can still be a jack of all trades. Now that I am in the vmware world I still plan on learning networking and SANs. Mainly because I need to be able to work and communicate with those teams. I don't plan on becoming a SAN admin, but know the basics makes my job easier. I've also seen when you begin to specialize the salary tends to be higher. At that point you are working in larger enterprise type environments. When getting your start in IT, SMB is the way to get your hands on a lot of different types of technology.

NightShade1

When i mean generalist ididnt mean desktop neither helpdesk support i mean something like: Networking, security, wireless, Windows server, etc something like that, non pc support stuff.

Slowhand

I guess I could call myself a semi-generalist. I have experience with Linux/Unix, I've done plenty of networking type of work, but for the most part I've focused on Windows Server 2003/2008 as well as other Microsoft products. (Not to mention countless other 'side-technologies' and tools that pop up over time.) For my own purposes, I've found this to be the way to go.

Even a CCIE might run into a situation where AD needs to be configured or tweaked, a server admin might have to work on setting up some firewall rules on a Juniper firewall, a desktop support tech might have to do some scripting or web-coding, etc. I pointed my roommate down the path of, "build a jack-of-all-trades foundation, then find something you enjoy doing to specialize in," and it's working out pretty well for him.

While being an expert on one topic or another is great, you really should at least be able to look up how to do what you need in others; conversely, knowing how to do a little bit of everything is always good, but you may find yourself outclassed by people who can do that as well as dig deeper on specific stuff.

paul78

What a great topic.. I work in the US and I consider myself a generalist. In my role, being a generalist that tends to be more useful. I guess it depends on the job and your career aspiration. Being a generalist, it serves me well.

Zartanasaurus

I'm trying to become a specialist in all things data center.

ptilsen

Slowhand wrote: »

"build a jack-of-all-trades foundation, then find something you enjoy doing to specialize in,"

Great quote for any IT professional to consider.

kotan

I'm a generalist and love it. It can be incredibly stressful trying to learn 5 directions at once but it keeps you excited about new technologies. About three years into my job, I unexpectedly became the company Sys Admin. They could have easily found someone more experienced but they felt they could rely on my work ethic, mold me into what they were looking for.

I'm responsible for a slew of things from...

VMWare cluster (EMC San)
-Fiber Channel
Exchange
- Including AV and Blacklist e-mail monitoring servers
Backup Exec
AD/DNS
Blackberry - Moving onto Android/IPhone
Document Management System
Cisco phone system
Cisco networking equipment (very minimal here as our environment seldom changes)
CRM software
Call flow management
Projects/migrations
License/contract management
Managing our Verizon Wireless corporate account including phones and international costs
Typical helpdesk tasks like desktop/laptop support
etc...

Knowing that I'm not going to MASTER all of this anytime soon, if ever, I've taken important steps to ensure success as I'm only accompanied by 1 other technician besides our DB admin.

A) Ensure incredibly detailed documentation while remaining organized and efficient (A massive password protected excel file with macros along with visio drawings).

I obsess over support contracts and licensing where practical.

C) Take advantage of golden opportunities. I use three vendors such as Insight, PC Mall, and PC Connection when making purchases to score the best pricing. All of them offer free services if I have questions regarding highly technical questions. This has proven to be very helpful when running into a brick wall.

D) Internet is every IT guys' best friend.

E) CBT Nuggets / Train Signal are essential tools in my world.

The problem I run into as a generalist is I'll become comfortably knowledgeable in an area while I'm working with it then forget quite a bit of what I've learned because I've worked with so much since then. It's an endless cycle of uncertainty. Sometimes I wish I could just focus on two or three things and specialize but it simply isn't enough at my SMB.

I have a love for almost everything that is IT so I'm thankful for where I'm at.

N2IT

Job 1 I'm a specialist

Job 2 more of a jack of all trades.

blargoe

kotan wrote: »

I'm a generalist and love it. It can be incredibly stressful trying to learn 5 directions at once but it keeps you excited about new technologies. About three years into my job, I unexpectedly became the company Sys Admin. They could have easily found someone more experienced but they felt they could rely on my work ethic, mold me into what they were looking for.

I'm responsible for a slew of things from...

VMWare cluster (EMC San)
-Fiber Channel
Exchange
- Including AV and Blacklist e-mail monitoring servers
Backup Exec
AD/DNS
Blackberry - Moving onto Android/IPhone
Document Management System
Cisco phone system
Cisco networking equipment (very minimal here as our environment seldom changes)
CRM software
Call flow management
Projects/migrations
License/contract management
Managing our Verizon Wireless corporate account including phones and international costs
Typical helpdesk tasks like desktop/laptop support
etc...

Knowing that I'm not going to MASTER all of this anytime soon, if ever, I've taken important steps to ensure success as I'm only accompanied by 1 other technician besides our DB admin.

A) Ensure incredibly detailed documentation while remaining organized and efficient (A massive password protected excel file with macros along with visio drawings).

I obsess over support contracts and licensing where practical.

C) Take advantage of golden opportunities. I use three vendors such as Insight, PC Mall, and PC Connection when making purchases to score the best pricing. All of them offer free services if I have questions regarding highly technical questions. This has proven to be very helpful when running into a brick wall.

D) Internet is every IT guys' best friend.

E) CBT Nuggets / Train Signal are essential tools in my world.

The problem I run into as a generalist is I'll become comfortably knowledgeable in an area while I'm working with it then forget quite a bit of what I've learned because I've worked with so much since then. It's an endless cycle of uncertainty. Sometimes I wish I could just focus on two or three things and specialize but it simply isn't enough at my SMB.

I have a love for almost everything that is IT so I'm thankful for where I'm at.

We're very much the same, and guys like us are worth their weight in gold to the right company. Lately, I've been wanting to move toward narrowing my scope somewhat to be a VM/Storage specialist with generalist level skills in OS and database. As companies move toward virtualizing/private cloud for their enterprise mission critical systems, doesn't that description sound like a guy you'd want to have on your team?

dave330i

blargoe wrote: »

We're very much the same, and guys like us are worth their weight in gold to the right company. Lately, I've been wanting to move toward narrowing my scope somewhat to be a VM/Storage specialist with generalist level skills in OS and database. As companies move toward virtualizing/private cloud for their enterprise mission critical systems, doesn't that description sound like a guy you'd want to have on your team?

That's the position I'll be interviewing for on Tuesday.

QHalo

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I'm trying to become a specialist in all things data center.

And this involves knowing more than just one specialty. If you want to be in the data center you need to know alot about everything. You'll notice that VMware guys that are experts are starting to work their way into the Cisco side as well. The converged data center is all about knowing how it all works together. This is my goal as well Zartanasaurus.

Zartanasaurus

QHalo wrote: »

And this involves knowing more than just one specialty. If you want to be in the data center you need to know alot about everything. You'll notice that VMware guys that are experts are starting to work their way into the Cisco side as well. The converged data center is all about knowing how it all works together. This is my goal as well Zartanasaurus.

Yeah I already have the basic R&S stuff down plus virtualization under Microsoft. My big deficiency right now is all things storage, which I am slowly trying to get up to speed on. We currently are using HP where I work, but there's talk of a move to NetApp or EMC. We also are gonna start some VMWare as well. After I get all of that down, I want to work with a consultant firm building data centers.

I'm kicking around the idea of getting my CCIP this year in addition to MCITP: VA.