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Discussion on: The fallacy of being a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ developer

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Matthieu Cneude • Edited

A developer doesn't have to be specialized in one "language or skillset" to be a specialist. He can be specialized in software for basically any business domain: specialist in content management, specialist in API for real estates, specialist in website for pizzeria.

The advantages can be great:

  1. He doesn't have to compete with 932394809 developers who are "specialized" in Golang.
  2. He can answer to common problem since he knows very well the business domain.
  3. Businesses might prefer hiring somebody who knows what they are doing / knows their difficulties and knows the solutions.

Now, it's how a developer might sell himself, but it's not necessarily all his skills. Actually, a specialist use way more than his specialty's skills, so he needs to have a wide range of them.

The question is: how to sell yourself, as a developer. That's different than your "real" skillset. To me, a "T-shaped" developer, with a specialty and still a wide range of skill, is the best.