The latest articles on DEV Community by Jacob Windle (@jaketothepast). https://dev.to/jaketothepast https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F84067%2Fb725548e-4dd5-45fa-8f53-1cafd7fe54a7.png https://dev.to/jaketothepast en Jacob Windle Tue, 21 May 2019 11:41:47 +0000 https://dev.to/jaketothepast/what-is-more-valuable-in-software-specialization-or-generalization-2pnf https://dev.to/jaketothepast/what-is-more-valuable-in-software-specialization-or-generalization-2pnf <p>As a software engineer that has been working for a few years, specifically within startups, I've picked up multiple skills and am comfortable in many different areas. This is mainly because I had to become comfortable, because at any of the startups I worked for I needed to just get something out the door. As a result, I've built several DevOps workflows, developed and deployed machine learning models, written React components, developed features for Rails and Django applications, and now I'm doing embedded systems work in C. Is this valuable? I am not "expert-level" at any one skill, but definitely intermediate at all of them.</p> <p>I'd love to hear the community's thoughts on this, just to feel a bit better about not being an expert in anything (though this could just be impostor syndrome...). Is it better to be a specialist, being an expert at very few things, or a generalist, being competent at a lot of things.</p> discuss career advice