Are you a specialist?

sigma

sigma

sigma

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Are you a specialist in your chosen career path? By this, I mean are you say, an accountant, or a developer or a trader, as opposed to an analyst or a manager.

I ask this because I don't think I am one, whilst I work in a fairly niche area I also cover many things and therefore have quite a few transferable skills (as do most people). This is great because it means you're flexible and roles vary, however, you never really end up being a 'specialist', obviously you can gain specific knowledge in your chosen market but roles seem to vary so widely.

For example, I can code a bit and understand concepts but I'm certainly not a developer.

I am considering picking an area to specialise in but it's quite tough when you can do a little of a lot of things. I spoke to a guy who works in Silicon Valley and he said the non-specialist thing seems to be very much a UK thing.

If you are a specialist, how did you decide to become one? Did you fall into it? Or did you think, "oh, I like XYZ" and just went for it?
 
jack of all trades me.

For instance, PPC, SEO, Social Media, blogging, 1st/2nd line helpdesk, web development, software design, asset tracking, procedure writing, training etc
 
The non-specialist:specialist thing is something I've heard a lot and experienced with US military compared to UK. It seems to me that the US have one person for each part of a job, whereas the UK armed forces have rough trades and branches, but not task specialisation like they do in America. For the record, I'm no specialist!
 
sigma said:
Is specialist even the correct term?
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Sounds like you mean "technical", rather than specialist.

Specialist would mean you know a lot a lot about one specific part of your industry, over and above overs. Technical means you do the work, rather than oversee/analyse others work. In my book at least.

I'm most definitely technical, and I hope to stay that way for a long time to come - less and just as much money as a manager.
 
sigma said:
Are you a specialist in your chosen career path? By this, I mean are you say, an accountant, or a developer or a trader, as opposed to an analyst or a manager.
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There's a huge number of specialisations within accountancy; financial, management, intercompany, commercial, systems, tax, treasury etc. An accountant would be considered a generalist rather than a specialist.

I'm a specialist, I administrate group consolidation\reporting software, so a hybrid finance\IT role. You might need 1-2 of those roles in a FTSE100 company or you'd farm it out to a 3rd party.

The problem with specialisms is the scarcity of roles and geographical distribution of them (not many head office functions of large companies in the North East) but the flip side is once you find a role they pay comparatively well.
 
sigma said:
Are you a specialist in your chosen career path? By this, I mean are you say, an accountant, or a developer or a trader, as opposed to an analyst
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"Analyst" is quite a broad job title but that doesn't necessarily mean that some Analyst jobs are not specialist. You could argue that some Analyst positions are more specialist than some accountancy positions, for example.

If you are a specialist, how did you decide to become one? Did you fall into it? Or did you think, "oh, I like XYZ" and just went for it?
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Some people might consider me a specialist because although my broad profession is very diverse (applied across many industries, technologies etc), I would guess at most 15% of my profession could work in the specialism that I do without significant additional training/experience (that's not intended as an arrogant statement - equally there will be other specialisms that I cam not qualified/experienced in). I do think this will change over time however as my 'specialism' is becoming more mainstream.

As for how I ended up focusing on that particular specialism it was mostly a case of falling in to it (i.e. as a generalist who worked on projects in this area), enjoying it, and then deciding to pursue it.

In summation I don't think I can be classed as a true specialist. I would say I have a broad skillset that is mostly applied in a particular industry and discipline but some of those skills and experiences could have much broader application.
 
I'm definitely a generalist. Technically I'm just a developer (multi-language/platform, C#/Java/Python, etc etc) and the different tech and hardware stacks that go with that.

However, I have 16 years asset management (traditional and alternative), some energy, some Investment Banking/Market making as well. And within all of those I've worked Front, Middle and Back office, with a variety of off the shelf and in-house developed solutions. I've successfully integrated companies (on both sides of the fence) at Front/Middle office systems level 7 or 8 times due to buy-outs, mergers, etc. So if anything I'm a "systems integration" specialist, with a focus on Front/Middle office trading systems for asset management companies.

Being a polyglot helps with these integration projects - the last one was a company with a Java stack, trying to integrate with our core systems which are C#/.Net.

I also head up the Development and QA department, as well as being the development manager for the hedge fund trading systems for one of the managers we own. So that's managing a team of 14 and a separate department of 20+ people. So that's line and "career" management as well that I've been doing for about 4 years now.

I sometimes wonder what to call myself on my CV...
 
Interesting insights, thanks. I'm going to have a stab at a few things and see what I like. It's really hard to decide what to focus on though, especially as I'm looking for my next move in the near future.

Amp34 said:
Sounds like you mean "technical", rather than specialist.
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An agile project manager is pretty specialist but I wouldn't call it particularly technical.

Murf said:
There's a huge number of specialisations within accountancy; financial, management, intercompany, commercial, systems, tax, treasury etc. An accountant would be considered a generalist rather than a specialist.
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Yeah, I meant the former. I actually don't know anyone who is just an "accountant".
 
I guess I am, my job title is Malware Analyst. I have a diverse range of skills across all of IT and IT security but the majority of my job is something that very few people do.
 
I'll leave this here, as it's probably my favourite thing to quote about this sort of thing:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

-Robert A. Heinlein
 
I would say what I do is fairly specialist - we focus on only one product and one market, and nothing else. I started off generalist (grad scheme) but gradually moved toward a more specialist role that interested me and was growing.

I would say there aren't really that many generalists in finance. When I have a question I always reach out to the person who specialises in that topic. Accounting query? Call the accounts team and speak to an accountant. Client wants to do a bond? Talk to a DCM banker. Want to write a loan? You'll need to get that through the industry credit team. Etc.
 
A combination of the two? I write SQL stored procedures, console and web applications (c#/.net, MS server 2008 SE and SQL server but we're moving to .net core and postgreSQL on some type of linux server), vba for Excel workbooks - nothing too complex but it does require an understanding of NHS payment rules and guidlines, how to complete some financial returns etc.

Technology-wise it's quite general although varied as there are only a few of us in the organisation, the NHS stuff makes it quite niche.
 
I am a specialist in mobile telecom fraud.

Niche market as we see only what happens in the industry. From basic whole account impersonation, account hijacks, AIT and revenue share fraud, all the way up to international revenue sharing fraud.

I came over from a long career in business banking so now have used that to focus on enterprise impersonation, application fraud and long firm fraud.

My savings for my company this year are running into the millions and is probably the highlight of my career.

So yes, very niche.
 
I think if you find yourself working with the same people at different places or people who have worked with people you worked with, you're probably in a specialist role!

I'm in resource planning, trying to make sure you've got the right people in the right place at the right time to answer calls, it's a very incestous industry, so I'd consider myself a specialist.

That doesn't mean I don't have other skills, but I'm not exceptional at them, I code a bit, I know a bit about process design and project management, so I use them to make my department work better to achieve things in the subject I know better than most people.
 
Put me down as a specialising generalist, captain. I come up pretty far on the Heinlein scale, but am happy to get stuck into one task or domain. If you work on anything remotely interesting, or are marooned in a startup, you cannot afford not to. For sheer speed, repetition and volume -- machines; the mind for everything else -- feed it well, and good things will come. :)
 
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