Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep206: Generalist vs Specialist - Which is better for career growth?

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

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Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. Specialist or generalist? Which is a better path if I want to grow my career? If you have been working for some time,

you will reach a certain point in your career in which you start asking yourself, hey, should I pursue a path to become a specialist or should I continue to be a generalist? Which is a better career path for me if I want to grow my career and grow my income. So in this episode, I want to share with you the pros and cons of the path of being a specialist versus a generalist and also give you my opinion on which is the path that would be the best for you so that you can continue to grow your career, you don't feel stuck, you can grow your income to provide for a better life for yourself and your family. So if you are new to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, welcome. If you have been

following our episodes, welcome back. So make sure that you like and subscribe so that you can get updated with our latest episodes. And if you want to dive deeper with me on all things corporate world, you can actually download my 5-Day Career Growth Guide at www.mayping.com. Let's get started. When I talk to a lot of people in my online community, many of them will say that, Mayping, how can I pursue a career as a specialist? Because I hear that being a specialist, I can get paid better. It's a lot easier to find jobs. So now let's talk about some of the pros and cons of being a specialist. Now, I do agree that when you are a specialist, right, that means that you have core skills and expertise that probably many people in your industry do not have. And that makes you very desirable

for a top job that will likely pay a lot of money. So I think that is definitely the benefit of being a specialist. And the second thing is it shows that you are committed and passionate and have a lot of in-depth knowledge

and insights into a specific industry. Now, this is also a really good thing as you continue to pursue this specific career and up the career ladder within that specific expertise and up the career ladder within that specific expertise and industry it makes you more valuable as compared to someone else that maybe has like a bunch of things in their career experiences which may be all over the place it

makes your career focus extremely targeted and you may be extremely desirable for certain companies particularly if they are looking to hire experts and it kind of gives you a bit of an edge. And with that, likely they will pay a lot more money as well because you are one of those unique candidates

that have a lot to offer as compared to someone else that may not necessarily have such extensive experience just like yourself. So in terms of like the benefits is quite obvious in general, but I do feel that

there are some cons that we don't really talk about. If you're like a technical expert specialist, right? And you are specializing in certain programs or certain systems and tools, you may run a risk of being jobless if let's say through the time and the changes in the job market

and digitization or whatever, that certain skill that you are highly skilled in just goes away. There are many things that may change in the job market and digitization or whatever, that certain skill that you are highly skilled in just goes away. There are many things that may change in the job market and job requirements over the next 5, 10 or 20 years. We don't really know.

So being a fully specific expert on like one space without potentially diversifying may put you in the risk of maybe losing a job if let's say this expertise that is very highly valuable right now will go away in the future.

So that's definitely something to think about. The second con of being a technical specialist, and this is something that I've definitely seen a lot, is many people who pursue a career as a specialist, they think that I don't need to learn how to work with different people. I don't need to learn how to manage projects and how to think strategically. I can just work on my expertise and then just sit in the corner at the office and everything will be okay. Now, this may be okay if you're someone who's a little bit more junior, but if let's say you are someone who is a manager and continue to want to move up career ladder, maybe like a senior manager or associate director, vice president and so forth,

they will reach a certain point that you do need to work with different people. And I have seen many specialists that get caught up in a certain ceiling. That's because they are not really willing to learn different skills or they're not willing to diversify beyond their core expertise. So I think it's just something to think about because I think being a specialist definitely has a lot of benefits, but there are some cons if you are not really willing to open up your mind a little bit more as you rise up the career ladder. Because being a super, super technical specialist probably makes sense in the first three to five years or maybe up to seven years of your career but if you don't want to learn anything more you're not willing to expand beyond that core skills that you have and you're not willing to work

with different people there may be a certain point where your career level you will get stuck at that point or your salary will also get stuck because at the next career level there is an expectation that you need to learn how to manage teams you think about strategy work with different people and this is something that you're not willing to do because you get fixated on the idea that being a specialist means I don't have to deal with all these nonsense. Like I said, there will be a certain point where you get kept as well. Moving on to the next part, and let's talk about being a generalist. Now, the people who come to me and telling me that, Mipin, I prefer being a generalist because I want to be the master of all trades, right? It

keeps me flexible and I want to try different things. I think there's definitely that benefit of being a generalist because you don't really have to specifically pick a core skill set and feel like you're getting stuck in a sense, but you are able to try different things and to be able to add value in multiple different ways. So I do think that the benefit of being a generalist is that you are extremely flexible, you are adaptable. And that means that in terms of like career choices and career transitions, you can probably move to different companies and different roles within different functions because you have so many transferable skills that many companies will value as well. And that's why being a generalist probably makes it a little bit easier for you to transition in case the job market changes. And it probably gives you a little bit

of fulfillment as well because you feel like you're able to learn new things, try different things and seek out new career opportunities that probably traditionally a specialist will not be able to do. With every pro, there'll always be cons and the biggest cons that I've seen with generalists is not really knowing where your value lies because you've done so many things. It comes to a point of like, I don't really know what I'm good at. I've tried a bunch of things but right now I feel stuck. I feel a little bit lost in my career. I don't really know what's the next step. So that is a situation that most generalists at certain point in their career will reach and they will start wondering whether, you know,

are they good enough? What can they do next? They are lost. They're looking at all these career options. They're like, well, I can kind of do everything, but that is not really helping me make a decision on what is the next phase. And this is the point where they may end up getting lost and feeling stuck in the overthinking mindset of not being sure to go for path A, B, C, or D. Now, this is kind of not really a good situation to be in, but I find that most people do come to a point of feeling really confused around their value positioning, particularly if they are a generalist.

Now, the other related problem with that, as I said, right, because they don't know what their value is, they don't know what their career options are, that means that when they come to a point of searching for jobs or thinking about career change, they end up getting stuck at this exact same company because they don't really know

how to sell themselves. And therefore, the new company, new hiring manager may not really understand what is the value that a generalist bring, especially if you have not learned how to articulate,

how to identify, how to share and talk about your achievements to make sense to the next company. Now, this is something that I definitely see a lot because in my career program, The Corporate Survivor, I do have a bonus course. It's the 30-day job search bonus course. And I noticed that for people who are in the, for my program students who consider themselves as a generalist, sometimes they'll feel a little

bit lost as to, hey, you know what, what is next? And this is something that definitely is taught step-by-step in terms of the career considerations in the program itself, as well as also discussed during monthly mentor sessions, as well as a bonus one-on-one career coaching call with me. So my point here is there's always a pro and a con, but you will definitely reach a point in your career in which you have to make a decision whether it's a specialist and generalist. So now that you're aware of the pros and cons of being the specialist and the generalist, then the question now is, Mei-Ping, so what is the best option for me? Now I'm going to give you a quick tip and this is kind of like how I've always approached my career to make sure that I can continue to climb the career

ladder and continue to grow my career regardless of whether I was a specialist or a generalist. The secret sauce is this, right? It's actually a combination between the specialist and the generalist and this is kind of like how I've been approaching my career. So, you want to be a generalist in a specialist space. Now, I repeat that. You want to be a generalist in a specialist space. Now, the problem that many people have to be a generalist in a specialist space. Now, the problem that many people have is that they want to try everything that is totally unrelated. And therefore, the value positioning becomes like all over the place. And eventually, you don't really know how you can sell yourself. So what you want to do is to pick a couple of

key industries that are pretty much related. So this is basically the specialization. So the specialization is in the related industries, but the generalist part of it is in the function. So I'll give you an example based on my specific career. So in my career, I consider myself specialist in the sense of financial services, banking, and consulting. Now, all these are actually related. If you can think about it like a triangle, this is something that I've been teaching my career program as well. So these are basically related industries. So therefore, it's specialist in that sense, because obviously I'm not going and look out for like completely different industries, which is going to be worse. Specialist in the sense of that industry, right? Financial services,

banking, consulting, these are actually really related industries. But the generalist part actually comes from me not sticking into just, you know, being in the audit function or the compliance function all the way or the operations function all the way. So I have done from audit to internal controls to risk advisory to business process improvement up to business strategy,

policies and procedures. So this is the generalist part of it. And as I continue to climb up the career ladder, I have continued to build on these experiences

and this exposure but within the same specialist space. So this is really the best way to think about it because you must understand that your value comes in the core expertise, the core experiences, the core skills.

So if you go all over the place, right, being too general in terms of your skills, functions, industries, then there's nothing to tie in together. And therefore, it's going to be almost impossible for you to sell yourself and you will always be very confused. So you want to always go back into this situation of how can I be a generalist in a specialist space? Okay. A generalist in a specialist space. This is really the secret

sauce, right? If you nail this, right, it's actually really, really easy to identify your skills, to identify what is the next opportunity, but identify how you can continue to grow, how you can continue to climb the ladder and continue to make more money. So this is really the secret that I've discovered for myself. You must understand the corporate world is a jigsaw puzzle. If you do things that all over the place, the jigsaw puzzle is not connected, then all your effort is going to be a waste of time. So do it this way. This is something that definitely has worked really well in my career because I managed to climb the career ladder and always seek out new opportunities, new growth avenues, even though I was really young and people have always asked me,

Mipin, how do you make it happen? And I'm telling you the answer right now. This is the secret. So this is something that is also taught in my career program, The Corporate Survivor. And this is something that I do discuss with my clients in monthly mentoring calls, as well as their bonus one-on-one coaching call. The program actually helps you work around step-by-step on how to identify your career options, career interests, and really identify your value positioning and to sell yourself. The frame of mind and the point I want to share in this episode is that there's no right or wrong in terms of like, you know, a specialist is better

or generalist is better. You really need to understand yourself. And second point is you also need to know that regardless of whichever path that you take, understanding the corporate world, navigating the corporate world,

mastering the corporate world, learning how to work with different people, learning how to solve problems, learning how to get visible and get seen, that is the thing that will allow you

to get recognition, to explore new career opportunities, to actually have the inner confidence to try new things, right? And that is really the secret sauce. So like I said, everything is connected together. And if you are feeling a little bit lost, a bit overwhelmed, and not really sure what to do, I hope that this episode kind of gives you a much better idea on some of the things that you can think about, not just from the career option standpoint, the value positioning standpoint, as long as what will actually work for you as you continue to grow your career

for long-term success. And that's why I always talk about next 20 or 30 years. It's not like a short-term immediate thing, right? If you plan it right, you set yourself in the right direction, then you are talking about the next 20 or 30 years.

Honestly, if you're listening to the Corporate Survival Podcast, that tells me that you have another 20 or 30 years to go. So that's why I'm here to help you think now, not just take action, to think, to have the right perspective, the right strategy and make the right decision now that will still work and make

sense for the next 20 or 30 years because you're actually setting yourself up for success where you can always move forward. You don't really have to move backwards, right? If that makes sense. So if you enjoyed this episode, let me know in the comments below. If you're watching on YouTube, tell me, are you a generalist or specialist in your career right now? What do you feel are the pros and cons? And what are you considering right now in terms of the next steps in your career? I'd love to hear from you. So if you're watching on YouTube right now, drop me a comment below. And again, if you want to learn more on how to grow your career in the corporate world, you can download my 5-Day Career Growth Guide and Training. You can find it at www.maping.com.

So with that, I hope you find this episode helpful and I'll see you next week. Bye!