Specialise to survive?

[tadaka at gmail.com (Jason Wood)]

> knowing when to sit down and hack or when to walk away is probably the
> greatest skill anyone in computers can have!

And that statement is all too true.  I can't tell you how many times I've
seen a bad situation get a lot worse because someone wouldn't take their
hands off the keyboard and call for help.  There's nothing wrong with
looking at something, deciding that it is too far out of my area(s) of
expertise and the risks associated with screwing up are too great.

The only skill I can think of that rivals this one is the ability to leave
yourself a way out, RTFM, and then proceed to figure it out.  BUT that must
be tempered with knowing when to say "when".

Jason

On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 8:35 PM, Michael Douglas <mick at pauldotcom.com>wrote:

> > jack of all trades messed up the environment
>
> OK this is the one area where I wasn't too clear on the earlier
> thread.  I'm assuming that you are competent in everything that you
> say you're going to do.  Unfortunately, this isn't the case.  There
> are many Jerks of All Trades who will mess things up badly.
>
>
> For those who mentioned it above, yes being a generalist does tend to
> get you in the small and medium sized businesses... but there are
> exceptions... take my day job for instance.  For those of you who
> don't know, I work at OCLC -- a non-profit library coop.  We're what
> I'd consider large.  We have over 72,000 libraries in our collective.
> We have a database with holdings information on about 1.2 billion (yes
> billion) records (books and other stuff).  We have a few thousand
> servers... yet they hired me...  A generalist!
>
> I'm a generalist... but a big part of my ability to get things done is
> admitting what I don't know.  For instance, a big part of my skill
> with forensics is how I DON'T mess up data.  If things get to hairy
> for me, I can wrap things up and call in folks who are better than me
> (and remember, there ALWAYS is someone better than you -- thinking
> otherwise is the first step on the path to destruction)
>
> knowing when to sit down and hack or when to walk away is probably the
> greatest skill anyone in computers can have!
>
> - Mick
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 2:42 PM, John Navarro<jnavtx at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Good point Tim!
> > Robert, I do think that a "jack of all trades" type will fit in better to
> > smaller companies, whereas the specialized, from my experience, seem to
> have
> > a better chance at getting into larger corporations. It was never my
> > intention to be "specialized", but having worked at a firewall vendor it
> was
> > just easier to find those opportunities that required a specific
> skillset.
> > Of course it could be that the jack of all trades messed up the
> environment
> > and they needed someone specialized to come in and clean it up ;)
> >
> > On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 8:16 AM, Tim Krabec <tkrabec at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Don't forget your specialization does not have to be computer/program
> > > related
> > >
> > > You don't have to specialize in "forensic analysis of devorak keyboards
> > > for AS/400 systems
> > > emulating Apple IIc systems"
> > > You could specialize in database recovery for small businesses.  Or BCP
> &
> > > DR for law offices or real estate companies.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Tim Krabec
> > > Kracomp
> > > 772-597-2349
> > > smbminute.com
> > > kracomp.blogspot.com
> > > www.kracomp.com
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Pauldotcom mailing list
> > > Pauldotcom at mail.pauldotcom.com
> > > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom
> > > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Pauldotcom mailing list
> > Pauldotcom at mail.pauldotcom.com
> > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom
> > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com
> _______________________________________________
> Pauldotcom mailing list
> Pauldotcom at mail.pauldotcom.com
> http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom
> Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com



-- 

irc: Tadaka
Twitter:  Jason_Wood
jwnetworkconsulting.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.pauldotcom.com/pipermail/pauldotcom/attachments/20090815/758c3773/attachment.htm