Narrow Specialization or Wide Experience?

Quite a lot of people ask themselves this question. Do I want to be a professional and do one or two things extremely good? Or I want to cover multiple areas and be able to solve numerous types of problems? We are going to check the pros and cons of these two approaches which should help you to make a decision.

Why This Is Important

Experience is one of the essential possessions of a person. It defines what kind of jobs the person can handle, how fast and efficient he/she can do the project, and if the customer will be happy with the results. Moreover, the presence of correspondent skills with the right qualification and amount of experience defines the difference between success and failure.

There are multiple reasons why this combination of skills, qualification, and experience is essential. The most crucial reasons are representing classical project management triangle — good/cheap/fast. So let us evaluate the importance from the standpoint of these three criteria.

The first reason is qualification — every customer wants the job done correctly. Requirements may differ from “do it the best possible way“ to “it should be good enough.“ One way or the other it depends on the experience and skills of an executor. If this person does not have the required qualification — the project is doomed.

The second reason is financial — every customer has a limited budget to do the job. Budget is usually directly proportional to qualification requirements. But even if these requirements are not that high customer expects to pay only a limited amount of money and not a penny more. Required skills and qualification define the salary of the executor and so the budget. If the executor has not received a salary — the job will not be done.

The final reason is time — every customer wants to finish the job in time. Time is usually inversely proportional both to a qualification and a budget. It is important to remember that time is the most valuable asset. Skill and experience define how fast a person can do the job done. If he/she has not done it timely — the whole project may become useless.

Now, knowing these three reasons we can have a look at the traits of narrow specialization and wide experience, and then compare them.

Way of the Expert

An expert is a person who has a qualification and a lot of experience in some area or areas. To become an expert, a person has to spend a significant amount of time to learn, practice, and improve his/her skills. As a consequence of that, a person usually can be an expert only in a small number of areas because it is simply not enough time to cover everything. Another unpleasant consequence is the lack of even medium-level qualification in related disciplines.

Experts are usually invited to do some particular job in his/her area(s) of expertise. The customer expects that the expert do the job fast and the result will have good quality, but the salary of such person will be significant as well. Because of that, experts often work on a contract basis. Usually, it is signed for a limited amount of time until the expert finishes the job. After that, an expert may prolong a contract or find a better (or more enjoyable) job to do.

The apparent advantages of this approach are high salary and the possibility to do things fast. So an expert has even more time to work on other projects. An expert may also choose the projects he likes and refuses unattractive propositions.

On the other hand, an expert has to spend additional time to remain an expert. Continuous book readings, training classes, and practice sessions become the daily routine. All these activities take quite a lot of time as well. Another issue is that sometimes an employer has to be changed several times a year with long unpaid pauses between these changes.

Jack of All Trades

The opposite way of being an expert is to have general skills. It means that a person has common knowledge in multiple areas and does not need to acquire in-depth knowledge in any of these areas. Such a person may not spend too much time learning new things — knowledge is obtained via the experience only without extra lessons.

Jacks of all trades can handle significantly more different jobs than expects. It makes sense when there are no tasks that require in-depth knowledge or professional qualification in that area. It is relatively easy to find a job, but the salary is usually smaller than the expert’s salary. The typical best practice is to have long term contract with a wide area of work and fixed salary.

Advantage of this approach is low requirements related to education and qualification. There is no need to spend time on extra training sessions — all required experience is quick and easy to acquire. Also, one such person can handle multiple low to medium level tasks, which is more convenient than working with several experts.

However, this approach has its problems. Obvious issues are relatively low salary, and lack of professional and career growth. Relatively complicated tasks take time unless there is an expert to help. It is also troublesome to find an appealing job. In most cases, these are just common activities or tasks, nothing special.

Which is better?

Every person has to decide which approach suits him/her better. The following recommendations may help to choose one of them depending on the situation and selected goals.

General skills approach makes sense under multiple occasions.

1. Zero or little experience. Makes sense for students who are looking for their first job and want to understand what exactly they like to do in the future. Also applicable for a person who switches from specialization area to another (e.g., from a school teacher to a software developer) to get general knowledge and acquire minimum required experience.

2. The number of workers is strictly limited. Every person has to acquire many skills with a low to medium qualification.

3. Job or financial issues. Makes sense for a person who is desperately looking for a job or money.

4. Inability to perform expert-level jobs. It can be a lack of time needed to become an expert, lack of interest to an area of expertise, physical or mental restrictions.

An expert approach assumes the following applications.

1. A person has a significant amount of experience in some specific area and a desire to continue to work in this area. It can be a person who wants to grow professionally or ex-student who found the job he/she likes.

2. Worker qualification has strict requirements. A person has to have a profound knowledge in some area to do the job correctly.

3. Science. Pretty much every person involved in scientific researches is either already an expert or in the middle of progress to become one. It is a consequence of the scientific method.

The approach may change depending on the situation. For example, an ex-student may become an expert after overall skills improvement, and the required amount of experience acquired. Or an expert may become a general skills worker to get more time for some non-professional activities.

These recommendations may help you to choose between narrow specialization and wide experience approaches. Just set a goal and see which way works best for you!