Leveraging your Generalist Superpowers

My name is Margarita and I am a generalist.

Having been a generalist for many years (and a happy one too!) I have found one task quite challenging: What's my USP? How do I sell/market myself? If I had that 10-second, one-in-a-lifetime elevator pitch moment to land the perfect role, how on earth would I position myself? Unlike other professions, I don't have a label to easily describe myself : "I am an accountant", "I am a developer" or "I am Cloud Solution Architect". I think people would laugh if I introduced myself as "Hi there, actually, I am a very experienced generalist".

September, 2021

My name is Margarita and I am a generalist.

So let's break it down.

What do the big names say?

Interestingly enough I discovered that Bill Gates (and his name obviously catches my eye as I work for Microsoft) positioned his view, recommending a book by David Epstein Range: Why Generalists Triumph in Specialized World. Gates credits the success of Microsoft to teams of generalists having broad experiences.

Range favours the generalist approach by noting the benefits of breadth, diverse experience and interdisciplinary thinking.

IMH(umble)O….

My view - having worked for Microsoft for the past 6 years - is that in fact you need both (and yes, you don't need an epiphany moment to realize that, it's pretty damn obvious). As a technology company it is vital to have a solid foundation of specialists for the technical/ architect roles. This is your army of experts that you highly depend on for their deep technical knowledge. It is also a group of experts that is continuously learning and upskilling themselves to remain ahead of the game (at least ahead of your customers and hopefully ahead of competition).

The gap created by the loss of a highly specialized employee is likely to be much more sensed, painful and even costly vs. losing a generalist who is typically easier to replace.

Employability

This brings me to the topic of employability. Here I believe a specialist is more likely find him/herself in high demand in the job market while also being more likely to secure a premium salary exactly because of his/her specialization (as long as the specialization is not an established commodity such as an accountant).

Developers or even more so Data Scientists are a specialized species very high in demand nowadays and companies are probably willing to pay a premium to recruit and lock in such specialized talent. It is often easier and preferred to pay a premium for a plug 'n' play hire vs. training & upskilling existing un- or semi-specialized employees as this is often a lengthy and potentially costly process.

But how in demand are generalists? Does anyone really go out there looking for generalists? "Generalist wanted". Companies typically need a Marketeer, a Business Analyst, a Developer or an IT Director etc etc. And while some of these positions may require experience in the specific field, they don't all require a high degree of specialisation. I'm sure that many HR Directors and CEOs understand the necessity and value of a balanced specialist vs. generalist mix, but when it comes to hiring, I am not all that convinced that the actual hiring process is as generous & open to generalists as preached. In recruiting, one might feel more insecure hiring a generalists vs. feeling safer knowing that you're hiring someone with deep specialisation (see an example of what I mean further down!)

The Insider

What I've gathered from my experience is that as a generalist, one's value is well appreciated within the company one works for. So positioning your value and 'selling yourself' internally is in fact not such a difficult task. It's convincing potential new employers that's the tricky part and I will touch on that in a sec. Changing roles, moving around functions within one's company is easy for a generalist which is especially true if your company evangelizes such a mindset and culture.

Generalists are adaptable, fast learners and bring a wide spectrum of experiences and ideas. They can see the bigger picture, they can connect the dots and they are often out-of-the-box thinkers exactly because they have seen and continue to see the bigger picture.

Career Flexibility

Which briefly brings me to the topic of career flexibility. A generalist has a wider span of experience allowing for more flexible career options. There are many more doors to knock on, not only across industries but also across functions. We generalists typically have what you call transferrable skills. Deep specialization may lead to the advantage of being highly in demand but may prove limiting as far as career options are concerned or may prove especially restricting for those waking up to the need for a 180-degree career change.

The Outsider

So if a generalist has career flexibility, why - you might ask - am I worried about a generalist's success in landing a new job with a new employer? For me, it came as a big slap in the face when I was in search for a job in 2014 with 17 years of work experience in my pocket, to hear a headhunter tell me 'I don't know how to sell/position you'. I had never until that moment considered that being a generalist might be a challenge or even blocker when looking for a new job. I always thought it was my asset! And so my quest to understand what is my USP began.

I will use my personal generalist background to give you the example I promised above. I am someone who's career started as a business analyst in the Finance department, then decided too much excelling is not good for one's health (no comments here please!) and changed direction to product development, product marketing, marcoms and then again made another pivotal deviation to sales! Clearly I'm a generalist. Let's say I were to apply for a Marketing Director role, how could I secure that my CV is even considered for review given that I will be competing against CVs displaying a much higher degree of marketing specialisation? Would they consider and value someone who also has Finance and Sales experience or would they opt for the deeply specialized Marketeer? Perhaps they would feel 'safer' with the latter....

I often feel that my CV is 'all over the place' (which is probably the case!) because I have zigzagged across many different functions and roles.

Is this 'generalist footprint' depicted in my CV valued and appreciated? Does my CV even get to pass the first phase of CV screening for that Marketing Manager role (esp. if it's an AI automated screening process) or is it too broad and does not fully match the perceived requirements for the role?

Conclusion? Sorry to disappoint, there is none…

So what - you might ask - is your answer to your quest? What have you concluded? Well I'm sorry to break it to you generalistas, that I haven't actually managed to come to any conclusion. But I did think it was worth putting my thoughts on paper and sharing.

Even at the age of 47, I still need to figure out my 'Elevator pitch'. We generalists need to figure out a way to overcome that first hurdle of getting people to consider us for a role they might think requires a specialist, when in fact a generalist is likely to be the wiser option.

Viva los generalistas!!!