The world has multiple points of view on whether you should be a generalist or a specialist.
Here is how I think of it:
1. First things first, please do not listen to a 19-year old whether you should become a specialist or generalist. Bro, they came out of their Hamley’s shopping half an hour back. What do they know about a career that isn’t even started?
2. A good idea is to look at folks who are slightly ahead in their career journeys, who have some skin in the game.
3. Also, early on in your life when you are trying to follow someone whose experience is 2X your age, it would be prudent to consider what they were doing when they were around your age. A lot of folks gain so much wisdom in their specialist era that becoming a generalist is the obvious eventual choice. But it came to them because they were specialists.
To summarise:
No question worth asking has a straight answer. However, the right questions are worth seeking, nonetheless.
