Totally needed to read this - brilliant! Had begun to doubt my 'jack of all trade' career trajectory to date but rather need to reposition that thought as use it to my advantage. Will be putting pen to paper tomorrow!
Our generalist whole is greater than the sum of our parts :) Loved the tactical approach on how to find your competitive advantage. One large thought I've been toying with is: which 'edge' do I WANT to flex? Combined with, will that 'edge' resonate with the market/audience? Curious to hear how you went about discovering the edge that you AND others enjoy. Thanks, Anna!
It was a process of discovery and testing my assumptions through having chats with people. So I basically came up with a list of multiple edges (individual slices, multiple slices and my entire skillset) and developed a hit list of potential clients or brands that I thought might find them valuable. Then I reached out to all of them, booked as many calls as I could, and used those conversations to test my assumptions about how I could add value. It was a real process of discovery but after about 3 months of doing this (and landing work along the way) I had a pretty good idea of where I should position myself. To be honest this is an always-on process for me, still to this day. It’s how I developed new products/services/offers. Hope that helps!
Very keen to give this a try! Feeling stuck in my 9-5 and needing a change/push to stretch myself into my next career phase. And really when you read the whole phrase ‘A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one’ being a generalist is a great way to be
This is brilliant, Anna! I have a coaching client who is struggling with that exact problem (she can do anything for clients and WANTS to do all those different things, but how do you position yourself?). I'll share your article with her.
Fabulous! I hope it helps her 😊. I have a couple of other articles in my back catalogue about positioning yourself as a generalist / portfolio careerist that may be helpful too if she wants to take a squiz.
Needed this! I definitely fall into feeling like my generalist skills are “jack of all trades, master of none” but this reframing is really helpful. Going to do the exercise soon. 🙂
I'm a generalist too, albeit with some clear preferences. I used NotebookLM and Claude to help me identify what's unique about me and what I'm brilliant at. So, so valuable. I also like the VIA Strengths Survey which gives interesting insights into where your strengths lie. I asked my best mate Claude to come up with examples of my skills in action, based on a brief I wrote about myself with help from NotebookLM. Or more accurately I prompted NotebookLM to write. Here's to being a generalist!
Claude offers a whole different level of depth. I’ve been using it to noodle on all sorts of things to do with my 2025 plans and it’s able to match the way my multipotentialite brain works and work. To say I’ve been able to advance and organise my thinking is an understatement.
Totally needed to read this - brilliant! Had begun to doubt my 'jack of all trade' career trajectory to date but rather need to reposition that thought as use it to my advantage. Will be putting pen to paper tomorrow!
It is SUCH a competitive advantage. Let me know how you go!
Our generalist whole is greater than the sum of our parts :) Loved the tactical approach on how to find your competitive advantage. One large thought I've been toying with is: which 'edge' do I WANT to flex? Combined with, will that 'edge' resonate with the market/audience? Curious to hear how you went about discovering the edge that you AND others enjoy. Thanks, Anna!
It was a process of discovery and testing my assumptions through having chats with people. So I basically came up with a list of multiple edges (individual slices, multiple slices and my entire skillset) and developed a hit list of potential clients or brands that I thought might find them valuable. Then I reached out to all of them, booked as many calls as I could, and used those conversations to test my assumptions about how I could add value. It was a real process of discovery but after about 3 months of doing this (and landing work along the way) I had a pretty good idea of where I should position myself. To be honest this is an always-on process for me, still to this day. It’s how I developed new products/services/offers. Hope that helps!
Very keen to give this a try! Feeling stuck in my 9-5 and needing a change/push to stretch myself into my next career phase. And really when you read the whole phrase ‘A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one’ being a generalist is a great way to be
Absolutely, everyone forgets that last (and most important) bit!
This is brilliant, Anna! I have a coaching client who is struggling with that exact problem (she can do anything for clients and WANTS to do all those different things, but how do you position yourself?). I'll share your article with her.
Fabulous! I hope it helps her 😊. I have a couple of other articles in my back catalogue about positioning yourself as a generalist / portfolio careerist that may be helpful too if she wants to take a squiz.
Sounds great! 🙂 I'll look for those other articles and forward them, along with a recommendation to subscribe 😅
Needed this! I definitely fall into feeling like my generalist skills are “jack of all trades, master of none” but this reframing is really helpful. Going to do the exercise soon. 🙂
Let me know how you go! x
Going to try this exercise this weekend!
Let me know how you go!
I'm a generalist too, albeit with some clear preferences. I used NotebookLM and Claude to help me identify what's unique about me and what I'm brilliant at. So, so valuable. I also like the VIA Strengths Survey which gives interesting insights into where your strengths lie. I asked my best mate Claude to come up with examples of my skills in action, based on a brief I wrote about myself with help from NotebookLM. Or more accurately I prompted NotebookLM to write. Here's to being a generalist!
Love your use of AI here. I haven't tried Claude but use ChatGPT a lot as an intellectual sparring partner on stuff like this.
Claude offers a whole different level of depth. I’ve been using it to noodle on all sorts of things to do with my 2025 plans and it’s able to match the way my multipotentialite brain works and work. To say I’ve been able to advance and organise my thinking is an understatement.
I’ll definitely check it out!
Love this framing, good exercise for the weekend!!
Hope it helps!
This post gave me confidence that I could find my edge. Feeling very round right now 😩
There are edges there, trust me!
Ooh, I love this pie slice framing -- so good, Anna! :)
You're welcome!
So much goodness in this post! I have some thinking to get to ✍🏼
Thanks Marisa! It's a really useful exercise and well worth the time it takes to think through your background in detail. Let me know how you go 🥰