I am a Final year student, currently pursuing Computer Science and Engineering in India. Like most final year students in my country, I am currently at a point where I have to decide what is it that I want to do with my future. However, unlike most people my age group, I have no clue. I seem to be one of those few people who are completely lost.
The most common question that arises is – “Is it better to be a Jack of All Trades or a Master of One?” Its a question that has haunted me through college. I have been part of various activities and organizations, clubs etc., always doing something different. i have never really specialized in my skills. always being a Jack of All trades than a master of one. My friends however, have a different story. Many of them have picked up a single skill, worked over and over with it and mastered it to the extent possible in the time available. Both ideas seem good right? Well, maybe a master of one seems better. But guess what? 3 years down and all of us are in the same boat. We get almost the same kind of job offers, almost the same incentives. Maybe the job roles are different, but the compensation and other incentives are the same. This got me thinking as to why? Two approaches, and both getting the same result. What is that one thing that differs us from the one’s who get the better offers? Interestingly enough, the answer was right inside my head, with my experiences.
I had started out on a quest to find and pursue my passion since my first year of college; far too early compared to many of my counter parts. My journey started off with me wanting to pursue an MBA post my college. I worked extensively to build the required skills, constantly re-defining my strengths. Through the few years, I decided on the fact that I wanted to pursue an MBA in Marketing and Strategy Management as that seemed to be my area of interest. Yes, things were going well. I was working towards my goals and everything was going according to plan.
However, over the course of my career building, I realized one very important fact. Marketing, as a job role was not as easy as it seemed to be. To be good at this job, one needed a lot of skills. Gone were the days when being a designer was good enough. The field of Digital marketing in itself required skills ranging from Content Creating to Designing to Web Development. Other skills such as Data Analysis were an added bonus. And when we ventured deeper into the subject, more and more skills kept adding up. A puzzled student, I turned to other walks of life, just out of curiosity. And there was that one thing I noticed in common in all of them. Every profession, every job role was infinitely more complex than the other. There was always a traditional mindset and a modern mindset. For example, in Digital Marketing, a traditional mindset mandated a good sense of design. A modern mindset however, required a whole range of technical skills added to the traditional one. There was always more than that meets the eye.
Every job required a vast array of skills, more often than not, greatly differing in types. What was once done by a team, is something companies prefer to be done by a single person. And an executive job, or even that of a team leader, required knowledge of all the skills in a team and more. We first evolved from a world which priced a Jack of all Trades to one which valued a Master of one. Now however, we are moving slowly into a world of “Jack of All Trades, And Master of Few(all).” And this is true not only of marketing, but all evolving practices. Take an Actuarial Job for example. Leading firms prefer to give both the front and back end of the work to a single person. Your actuary is now the person who not only performs risk management through complex mathematical algorithms, but also sits down with you to understand your needs. They need good mathematical, english and programming skills coupled with soft skills, all different from one another.
Another example would be the recent rise in the trend of a B.E degree followed by an MBA. People who successfully do so, usually land in well paid/top position jobs directly. Why? Is it because they studied more? Or are they smarter? Some may debate the fact and argue, however, I feel it is simple because they have a more diverse knowledge and understanding of things. They are well learned, not just in one portfolio, but rather in two. And that is what gives an edge to them over others. Not the intelligence or the level of IQ one might have.
Personally, I believe that this is the future of the world, especially with the recent recessions. Companies are looking for people who can do the work of 2 or more people, using just one person and that is where the world would head. To an era of “Jacks being the Masters.”
The Dreamer 