Misnomers aside, sometimes you just have to be a Jack of all trades, but it doesn't really mean that you become master of none.
First things first: I'm very far from being the greatest developer, or sysadmin, or data analyst.
For several reasons I ended up doing bioinformatics (mostly because I really like doing bioinformatics), but academically I started being a chemist.
What changed?
For starters I always thought that everything could be explained, modelled and even proved theoretically, thus I had to learn computer science the hard way (by myself).
When I realised I could do my own algorithms and my own programs, it was time to share those tools with the scientific community, that is, porting my tools from command-line interfaces to more human-friendly interfaces like GUIs or web-tools. Thus I had to learn even another set of languages.
At some point it was really hard for me to say that I was a chemist, since I never really was a chemist. I did a masters in chemical-biological sciences majoring in microbiology, and then my PhD in genetics, all of them using computer science.
Jack of all trades, sure, master of none, most likely.
However it hit me some time ago:
Being a Jack of all trades does not mean that I ought to be master of none.
If you ask me what I am, I'd say without even thinking: "bioinformatician".
And that's my speciality, and that's what I do, and that's what I'm master of, although it requires me being a sysadmin, a backend developer and a data analyst.
What no one tells you, is that some jobs are for "those with a deep understanding of computer science, who can pick up any language as they see fit" either during calm times or when the storm hits. It's hard, but in the end it pays real well (sadly, I'm not speaking in terms of money).
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Misnomers aside, sometimes you just have to be a Jack of all trades, but it doesn't really mean that you become master of none.
First things first: I'm very far from being the greatest developer, or sysadmin, or data analyst.
For several reasons I ended up doing bioinformatics (mostly because I really like doing bioinformatics), but academically I started being a chemist.
What changed?
For starters I always thought that everything could be explained, modelled and even proved theoretically, thus I had to learn computer science the hard way (by myself).
When I realised I could do my own algorithms and my own programs, it was time to share those tools with the scientific community, that is, porting my tools from command-line interfaces to more human-friendly interfaces like GUIs or web-tools. Thus I had to learn even another set of languages.
At some point it was really hard for me to say that I was a chemist, since I never really was a chemist. I did a masters in chemical-biological sciences majoring in microbiology, and then my PhD in genetics, all of them using computer science.
Jack of all trades, sure, master of none, most likely.
However it hit me some time ago:
Being a Jack of all trades does not mean that I ought to be master of none.
If you ask me what I am, I'd say without even thinking: "bioinformatician".
And that's my speciality, and that's what I do, and that's what I'm master of, although it requires me being a sysadmin, a backend developer and a data analyst.
What no one tells you, is that some jobs are for "those with a deep understanding of computer science, who can pick up any language as they see fit" either during calm times or when the storm hits. It's hard, but in the end it pays real well (sadly, I'm not speaking in terms of money).