Generalist vs. Specialist
A Consultant’s Perspective
By Angie Wang (Consultant at OmniTek Consulting)
From the beginning of our educational journey, we were taught that ‘being well-rounded’ was the key to success. College panels and career advisors preached variety and rigor of courses taken, along with a diverse set of extracurricular activities, as the basic prerequisites to becoming a successful candidate. So we beefed up our ever growing resumes with internships, leadership roles, community service…anything we could think of to appear more marketable on paper. Eventually, when we reach a point where we’ve dabbled in good amount of roles, we end up at a crossroads, forced to decide whether to commit to one specialty or continue to expand our knowledge into different roles or industries. On one hand, we run the risk of specializing in a role that may eventually become obsolete. On the other, we may be branded a “jack of all trades, master of none.”
Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place
In order to pick apart these two very different paths, let’s define, at their core, what it means to be a generalist or specialist.
Generalist: one who has a preference for and focuses on breadth of knowledge
Specialist: one who has a preference for and focuses on depth of knowledge
Let’s say everyone starts off with a knowledge area of 1 and maxes out at an area of 10. A generalist chooses to expand the breadth of that knowledge, adding more skills to their repertoire, while a specialist chooses to increase its depth, focusing on the growth of a select few skills. If you look at the diagrams below, which rectangle is considered ‘bigger’? Which knowledge shape is ‘better’? From a mathematical standpoint, both are equal in value. From a business standpoint, this may not be the case.
Weighing the Options
Rather than listing out the separate pros and cons of both sides, let’s take a more integrated approach in comparing the two. We will focus on three major factors that affect the success of an individual in the consulting labor market: market considerations, problem solving abilities, and expertise.
For the purpose of limiting our scope to avoid broad generalizations, the following analyses are taken from a consulting perspective.
1. Market Considerations
Diversification of skillsets allows for broader-based marketability. Due to this, there’s a high supply of generalists that view their broad skillset as insurance to keep their options open in a constantly-changing employment market. On the other hand, there’s a lower supply of specialists considering the time and effort it takes to reach a certain expertise. If demand for each role is relatively similar, the limited supply of specialists has the higher market value.
One can argue that there’s a higher demand for generalists in the consulting industry because their transferable skills and adaptability allows for easy transitions to new roles and projects. On the contrary, one can also argue that there’s a higher demand for specialists due to their expert knowledge of a specific platform. The fallacy of this statement is that one cannot compare the demand for generalists as a whole to the demand for specialists as a whole because no one can be a specialist of everything. The risk for specialists lies in the choice of specialty in which demand fluctuates much more than in roles that target generalists. Therefore, the demand for generalists is greater than the demand for any particular specialist.
2. Problem Solving
Generalists have a greater breadth of perspectives and are more successful in navigating through vague or poorly defined situations. They can fill talent gaps and are leveraged to fill immediate needs due to their flexibility of skills. While specialists take on a more analytical approach, generalists focus on synthesis.
Specialists have great problem solving abilities in regards to their specialty due to their extreme depth of knowledge on the subject. They follow a very streamlined work process, sticking true to their known approaches, but will find difficulty in adjusting their perspective in an uncertain environment.
3. Expertise
Generalists are often considered to be good in a lot of areas but not experts at one particular skill. However, it is false to say that they do not have any expertise. Their expertise is not in content but context, using their breadth of knowledge to see the bigger picture.
By definition, specialists are experts in their field. They understand the ins and outs of their work and can provide in depth, thorough input in a smaller range of projects. They typically have high credibility due to their experience and can charge higher fees for their expert services.
Striking the Balance
We could go on and on with this debate, eventually reaching a compromise of, you need to be a little bit of both. Although this is definitely true, how much of a “little bit” of each do we want? And when should we want it?
It’s safe to say that most everyone starts off as a generalist after college if they plan on joining a consulting firm. We recognize that diversifying our experiences makes us more marketable and gives us more options. However — we admit that abandoning the idea of subject matter expertise is unwise, especially considering the low supply and high market-value of specialized skills and the credit afforded to focused experience. So we use our different experiences to guide our preferences towards skills or roles that we enjoy, making the selection process for our preferred specialty easier. We also acknowledge the fine line between building enough highly-specialized skills to increase our competitive advantage and overspecializing in a platform that may become obsolete. In addition, we notice that leadership positions are characterized by people management, vague and uncertain situations, and holistic views on business development, where a generalist’s approach is necessary.
Taking these factors into account, it appears ideal to focus on expanding the breadth of our knowledge early in our consulting careers. A shift in focus to depth should then occur after solidifying a broad knowledge base and identifying one or two favorable skills to be proficient at. Eventually, as career progression allows, one may be introduced to executive positions that require team leadership, client relationship management, and selling of consultant work. In this case, a shift from a specialist mentality towards a more generalized approach to management may increase effectiveness and success.
Bottom Line
The generalist → specialist → generalist approach is only one recommendation that attempts to outline a successful career path. In reality, the ideal path for an individual cannot be defined by any single method. In consulting, everything depends. Additionally, a person’s predisposition and personal preferences need to be taken into account when developing the best possible roadmap. The key takeaway is that the preference for breadth or depth takes a backseat to the flexibility of building one’s knowledge shape. Everyone has a tendency to fall into one type, but the key is to realize that one needs to develop the skills of the other type as well in order to be successful. The abilities for specialists to broaden their skillset and generalists to deepen their knowledge in select few competencies, are what set apart the MVPs from the average Joes.
Thank you to Will Liu (The Specialist) & Kayleen Miller (The Generalist) for your help while I was working on this!
These thoughts are my own and don’t necessarily align with those of OmniTek Consulting
