Are you a jack of all trades or a master of one? Should the goal when entering the workforce be to become a generalist or a specialist? Much debate exists surrounding which professional career path leads to more long-term success. Regardless of profession or industry, the best answer is – of course – it depends! Although I do certainly agree that “it depends,” I also believe that it’s specific to individual ambitions and can – and should – morph throughout one’s career. Let’s dissect a seemingly simple topic that has deeply rooted implications below the surface.

While likely a formality, I must lay the groundwork with basic definitions, so here they are:

Generalist: a person competent in several different fields or activities
Specialist: a person who concentrates primarily on a particular subject or activity

As alluded to, I believe that to position oneself as a generalist or specialist is best determined based on the years of experience in a profession or industry, not the profession or industry itself. Early in a career, it can be advantageous to begin by mastering a specific skill or craft. As a junior member of any team, you’re not expected to have a wide-range of skills in a given industry, simply because you’re new to the working world as a whole. Working hard to become a specialist in any profession early in a career shows dedication and commitment and indicates to management that you could be destined for leadership responsibilities within the firm. Sounds great, right?!? Specialists win! Wrong – and here’s why:

A generalist (at least a good one) is considered a “corporate athlete.” These people can wear many hats at once, are flexible, and can shift between projects and groups effectively and often. Leaders tend to be more generalists because they can change course quickly to manage and lead different areas of an organization. Leaders (and generalists) actually bring together groups of specialists by taking input from many parts of an organization to identify trends, and subsequently create strategic roadmaps for successfully navigating an industry.

I’m certainly not saying there is no place in business for specialists to become leaders and have long-term successful careers. There will always be value to having extensive knowledge of certain topics, however, the ability to see across different verticals and sectors helps in identifying opportunities and establishing the heartbeat of an organization. Because of technology, jobs and industries are constantly evolving and being disrupted at an increasingly rapid pace, and those who can adapt quickly and stay ahead of the curve are most likely to succeed. Generalists have that innate versatility that specialists do not. Additionally, specialization can be counterproductive if the result of mastering specialized skills creates many similar people in the market. Specialization then becomes commodified, creating less bargaining power, because each specialist is actually easily substitutable and it’s easier to monetarily quantify a person’s value when compared to a person with similar accomplishments. Some specialists are also under threat of extinction from advancements in software and robotic automation. The challenge for a specialist is that your skills may not be valued in five to ten years the same way they are today. There are many examples of once specialized skills (remember travel agents?) that have become obsolete as a result of technology. As a specialist in any industry, perhaps the key is to correctly identify which specific skills will be desirable to have ahead of the demand.

It is reasonable to hypothesize that the Great Recession of 2008 led job-seekers to believe that specialized skills were required to obtain work in a struggling economy. Unemployment in the US peaked at ~10% in the years following the financial crisis, and most firms were only hiring for specific needs while the economy recovered. A decade later, unemployment is under 4%, and there is an exciting push towards entrepreneurship in both our schools and society, which has consequently led to more interest in generalization, as individuals with diverse backgrounds are successfully starting new businesses in a variety of industries.

To a certain extent, specialization could be categorized as just a complex self-marketing technique – the ability to demonstrate to a potential employer why you should be hired because of your specific specialty. But as a generalist, you can obviously just market yourself as a specialist… and because you possess a well-rounded skill set, there’s nothing keeping you from presenting yourself as a different type of specialist every time you target a new job.

So, what’s the takeaway? I clearly have a bias towards becoming a generalist as you build your skill set and progress throughout your career, but what I’m really stressing is the value of being multidimensional. Be a specialist in your subject and aspirations, but be a generalist in your skills and tactics. As I look into the mirror, I view myself as something of a generalizing specialist – a product of a non-linear academic and professional career path. Is that a good or bad thing? Time will tell.