Talking to an old friend on LinkedIn prompted me to write this down.
How I moved from one tech to another, and still not the âexpertâ.
I was a CS student from the late 90s to early 2000s, when tech was still in its âgrowingâ phase.
We didnât have that many choices like today.
So either we became âCD-multimediaâ programmers (creating interactive content for CD-ROMs), computer technicians, or office administrators that knew how to use Excel and fix printers when the paper got stuck.
I donât want to dwell into specifics of what went on (or went wrong) during those times, but my point is, 90+% of us became clueless of what we wanted to become.
I love computers, games mostly, so I chose that path.
Since we were trained to be just âgood enoughâ for something, we were always faced with the dilemma of what to do next or thoughts like âwhy am I so average?â, and so on. I know, people still have that nowadays.
Excluding my soul-searching endeavours before sticking to my first real job, I started as Network Assistant (for awhile), then as Wintel Engineer at one of the tech pioneer companies in the US. Wintel here is windows server with Intel processor, or whatever.
My last real employment role was as Systems Engineer, working on both Windows and Unix/Linux server infrastructure. Iâm leaving out a lot of details about those roles, as it would be too long and boring to go into.
After that, again, leaving out all my mid-life crisis endeavours, I started my own full-stack development agency as you might know by now, Jerami Tech.
Iâve dabbled with no-code: a year before COVID and during COVID â pivoted from code to no-code gigs.
Iâve tried working as No-Code Project/Product Manager for a startup based in New York. That was fun, but realized (both the CEO and myself) that they donât need a No-Code PM at all.
Finally, last year, Iâve joined a couple of friends and helped building a generative AI tool for research.
Phew, writing these few paragraphs feels like writing a long-ass novel or something. I think, itâs the âexcess baggageâ of remembering those memories. A bittersweet one.
Ok, now on to the main part! Ha ha. What?!
Looking back on this journey, a pattern emerges.
Throughout those years, I never felt like Iâm an expert of anything.
Iâve tried to become a specialist in systems engineering, but I never got the job that I wanted. At least, thatâs how I saw it at the time.
Iâve tried to become a very good programmer, but always felt stuck in building something that really works. Or so I thought - it might have just been me. The app does work as intended.
Went on and back from front-end to back-end to front-end again⌠Sigh.
Moving from one programming language to another, because I thought I sucked at JAVA, maybe Iâll be good at C#. Then, javascript, ruby, python, and so onâŚ
Feeling tired of reading this?
Yeah, me too⌠doing them.
Give it a pause. Drink that coffee, or make (another) one.
Pat your cat or dog, or yourself, and say, âAaatta boy/girl!â
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Ok, on to my main-main point of the storyâŚ
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Itâs 2024, and we need to unstuck ourselves from that limbo of âI need to be the best at ____â.
You can be a generalist. THE generalist! Be just good enough for the main thing youâre supposed to do, give it your best, do it properly â not half-baked, and then give more value to the whole company. Bonus tips: Be humble, and be kind to one another.
In my case, I can be the best tech-generalist that helps small businesses or startups with their technology. I can code, I can build. But I also have the eye for design, I can fix my own UI/UX and all that jazz.
Want more?
If we have VPS issues, I know where to find the solutions or know people who might help.
Our website is not doing well? I can write a good copywriting or know somebody whoâs good at it⌠or I know what to look for when weâre interviewing the candidates that we need.
Our tech funding is running low? Again, either I fix it myself, or get the best people to help. Of course, I canât promise that it will be perfect. But we can do quick fixes (properly) before we get the next funds in. Deal?
And so on, and so forth.
Sooo⌠what do we learned today?
You donât have to be the expert or very, very, very good at that one thing, but instead, learn to give more added value to that role.
I know, you might say, âYou canât get a job by telling the HR âIâm a ____ generalist!â.
Yes, youâre right. But some companies do. Trust me on that. You just need to know where to look.
Quoting that old friend, âWhat I lack in deep cloud knowledge I make up with enterprise experience.â
Do I need to say more? We can discuss further on X or LinkedIn.
So, embrace your diverse skills and experiences â theyâre what make you unique, and valuable in todayâs tech landscape.
Thatâs my TEDtalk, thank you for joining in!
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