If I needed heart surgery I would go to a cardiologist, not a family practitioner.

If I was hiring a sales person, I would hire based on their sales knowledge, experience and results, not their diversity of knowledge across several domains.

If you’re an excellent or world-class specialist, the numbers in competition don’t matter. If your a specialist that doesn’t evolve and grow withing your specialty, you’re a dinosaur and competition will oust you.

There is no valid evidence suggesting that “a generalist approach”, meaning broad approach is better or even equal in ANY way compared to “a specialized approach”, meaning a deep(depth) approach.

This holds true when people suggest the broad approach gives a better overall perspective. It’s completely unfounded and quite the opposite of what the vast amount of research suggests.

If organizations wanted generalist leading their various teams and organizations, they would hire graduates with only liberal arts degree’s. But they don’t – they seek students from the best business schools in the country.

If you want to be average, be a generalist.

I also found this statement bizarre:

“Perhaps specialists deserve to get paid more because they are persistent in accomplishing which specialization they want. It doesn’t mean they work harder necessarily. In fact, one of my lowest-paying jobs required the most physical effort.”

Specialists are paid more because they are experts in their field of knowledge. Expertise commands a premium on the job market. Common skills do not command a premium. It’s as simple as basic supply and demand.

PS Why do you think so many doctors choose specialties (dermatology, ENT, etc)? Those doctors get paid a lot more.

In the general marketplace, the most effective and proven strategy is to start by becoming a super expert in a micro-niche, the ultimate in specialization. Build a good reputation as the expert in some little thing. Then branch out from there by adding more and more capabilities.

Federal Express did that. They were a struggling small package shipper until they began to specialize in one single niche (at the time a very small one): overnight. We know the rest of the FedEx story.

I believe the same applies to a career. The key, of course, is to pick a specialty for which a need exists, and then branching out into related needs.

Great comment on a great article.

By that definition, being a plumber is also a career.

I can say without a doubt, this is a difficult decision to make.

If you are interested and motivated (and perhaps talented and/or lucky) there’s a huge range of what you can do. So LOTS of progress that can be made. Sounds like a career to me.

Of course one could choose to take more of a non-career path if desired (and I know folks who happily do), so to some degree I think (like with most jobs) it can be what you want to make it.

I considered myself a highly specialized person, resiliency, but think I’m a generalist in a lot of ways too. I’m fascinated in sustainable business, non-profit development, environmental policy, personal health, financial success, and have a lot of technical skills; I consider myself a jack of all trades.

However, I have a hard time finding a job in my chosen field. Perhaps I became to specialized to early, I’m 27 and with years of internship experience, and a variety of jobs in a variety of areas, but while in theory I’m specialized, my full time work experience doesn’t support that.

However, I’m tired of waiting for an opportunity to finally happen, so I’m being proactive about building my niche into a opportunity. If you have found a specialization you love and think is useful, and you can’t find a job in it, then chances are you can probably create an opportunity. Easy or hard should be put aside, because it’s easy to do what you love; but if there is anything I know to be true, is that there is always work for someone to do, it’s just a matter of who’s going to do it. So take a chance and do some work in what you love, and the money should follow.

It ties into (perhaps even drives) the forces of supply and demand other commenters have already noted. Not everyone takes the risk, keeping supply restricted. But if the reward gets too high, then more people will choose to risk it, bringing supply up and price down.

I’m not claiming that specialization is problem-free, all I’m really saying really is that in a modern economy with extensive division of labor and trade networks, specialization pays off.

I say this as someone who was a jack of all trades for a very long time and had the low net worth to prove it– I am able to do a lot of things, but in the end I profit more by focusing on doing one thing really well and outsourcing or automating the rest.

And there, which one is better for an individual is going to depend on a lot of things, but I feel like for most of the population, some degree of specialization – and a more extreme on than in years past – is going to be taken for granted. And when you start to look at whether you should get extra, especially specialized, it really is still a hard question.

Specialization only matters if there is greater demand for the specialists than there is supply. And as others mentioned, have backup plans if the specialization becomes obsolete.

Now think of this– when competing for the grownup market, does it give your parents a competitive advantage to be expert dancer teachers? Can they get a better clientele than someone who is also a part-time juggler and weekend violinist and who does bookkeeping on the side?

You bet they do. They can probably say they’ve been teaching for X decades and charge accordingly. The specialist wins again. When somebody is really good at something, they can adapt, evolve, transfer skills, and continue to thrive. They also know their market better and can find opportunities where nobody else can. THEY CAN GROW GIANT PUMPKINS (long story– but article forthcoming).

I think a persons location is a large factor in making this decision. If you live in a mid to large size city or urban area, the greater the chances of demand for a specialization.

I personally life in rural NC, an area with high unemployment. The more general your skills, the higher the chance of finding employment.

I like balance this, by being well-rounded, and having a couple of core areas that I continually build my skillset towards.

Most people are generalists, I think, because they don’t have the knowledge or skill to specialize in something.

I think the key to success is to be able to specialize in one thing while having general knowledge in many other things.

So an aeronautical engineer with a marine biologist spouse, or two professors or researchers, are going to have a lot of problems finding work for both of them in the same location, that may outweigh the financial benefits of either one making more when they can find a job that works for the whole family.