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Ask HN: When or if to specialize?

by dnoberon on 4/24/23, 12:33 AM with 4 comments

I’m 34 and have been in development for almost ten years now. I’ve worked in a few different languages and have worked mainly in e-commerce and data warehousing. My current position is basically tech lead of a research department.

Now to my question. At this point in my career should I be looking at specializing in a certain field, tech, technique or management etc. Or should I even worry about it and just go with the flow? I sometimes worry that I should be doing a lot more tech wise but not sure if that’s standard imposter syndrome or not.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

  • by nbeekay on 4/24/23, 3:34 AM

    The answer is almost always "it depends". But that isnt helpful :). What are your goals? Work backwards from there and see what skills you'll need to get there. If you want to continue to operating as an individual contributor with some responsibilities of mentoring juniors in your technical field, you'll be better off specializing. On the other hand, if you're looking to move to a management role, where you expect to lead teams and job families that aren't close to your job function, you might want a good blend of skills that'll allow you to lead them confidently. Shameless plug - I also coincidentally wrote about this topic in my personal blog here: https://leadershiptales.substack.com/p/beat-the-luck-factor-.... It might help you advance your thinking process.

  • by cc101 on 4/24/23, 5:06 AM

    If you are uneasy with your career, go for the biggest opportunity that you can find. Trying to plan and manage a career based on reason is often not that practical. It's with good reason that the words career and careen are so similar. A career can look like a cannon ball careening through life bouncing of this and that with no clear direction. Go for the big opportunity and keep pushing for something better.

  • by breckenedge on 4/24/23, 12:38 AM

    You’re still pretty young. Try specializing for a few years. If it doesn’t work out, go back to something more general.

  • by pizzaknife on 4/24/23, 12:55 AM

    do something outside. its nice outside