OMG - I thought I was the odd ball being a generalist, but I think I found my tribe here! LOL.
With so many passions (AND expertise on multiple things) how do you position yourself on LinkedIn? I've struggled with this too, i.e., I've a very broad skillset, and I can do a LOT of things. And I'm not kidding when I say that. These are the areas I've expertise in (not saying this to brag!!):
Electrical Engineering
Programming
IT Project/Program/Product Management
People Management, Leadership, and Mentoring
I Co-founded a Web Design & Marketing Agency
Avid blogger
Storyteller
Flash Fiction Writer
Content Manager
Quit Smoking and Mental Health Coach
Copywriter
Short-form Video Creator
Ex-YouTuber
Joint Ventures
I've written screenplays and acted in a short film
Digital Artist and Photographer
Quality Assurance & IT Automation Consultant
Retail drop-shipping
And numerous other ventures I've failed!
Phew! I never thought I'd make a list, but thanks to you, here I am! :)
But in my experience, people aren't looking for generalists -- they're looking for specialists, and they all look at your LinkedIn. Any advice on how you'd position yourself on LinkedIn would be much appreciated. This was an eye opening post - thanks so much!
This hits home! Being a generalist can feel like a challenge, but when you start stacking your skills, you realize just how much of an edge it actually is. Love the ‘skillset pie’ analogy—definitely going to reflect on my own slices!
Thanks for sharing, Anna. I'm in a career shift...from 9-5 to building my own portfolio career, and it's been fun to dig into your prompts and see how I can bring my skills and experience together. An important mindset shift for me has been: what do I want to scratch from my pie? what do I NOT want to carry forward into my portfolio career, even though I'm good at it? Value in the editing.
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.
This came at the right time. Thanks so much for writing this piece. Need to structure my portfolio/cv/messaging to reflect this
You’re so welcome!
love
🫶🏼
OMG - I thought I was the odd ball being a generalist, but I think I found my tribe here! LOL.
With so many passions (AND expertise on multiple things) how do you position yourself on LinkedIn? I've struggled with this too, i.e., I've a very broad skillset, and I can do a LOT of things. And I'm not kidding when I say that. These are the areas I've expertise in (not saying this to brag!!):
Electrical Engineering
Programming
IT Project/Program/Product Management
People Management, Leadership, and Mentoring
I Co-founded a Web Design & Marketing Agency
Avid blogger
Storyteller
Flash Fiction Writer
Content Manager
Quit Smoking and Mental Health Coach
Copywriter
Short-form Video Creator
Ex-YouTuber
Joint Ventures
I've written screenplays and acted in a short film
Digital Artist and Photographer
Quality Assurance & IT Automation Consultant
Retail drop-shipping
And numerous other ventures I've failed!
Phew! I never thought I'd make a list, but thanks to you, here I am! :)
But in my experience, people aren't looking for generalists -- they're looking for specialists, and they all look at your LinkedIn. Any advice on how you'd position yourself on LinkedIn would be much appreciated. This was an eye opening post - thanks so much!
Hello, fellow generalist! I've actually written a couple of posts on exactly this, I hope these help 🫶🏼
https://annamackstack.substack.com/p/the-5-types-of-portfolio-career-ists
https://annamackstack.substack.com/p/how-to-anchor-your-positioning-as
Thanks a ton!!!
Welcome!
This hits home! Being a generalist can feel like a challenge, but when you start stacking your skills, you realize just how much of an edge it actually is. Love the ‘skillset pie’ analogy—definitely going to reflect on my own slices!
Nice! I hope it's a helpful framework for you 🫶🏼
Thanks for sharing, Anna. I'm in a career shift...from 9-5 to building my own portfolio career, and it's been fun to dig into your prompts and see how I can bring my skills and experience together. An important mindset shift for me has been: what do I want to scratch from my pie? what do I NOT want to carry forward into my portfolio career, even though I'm good at it? Value in the editing.
This is such a good question to ask yourself! I think building a portfolio is as much about what you don’t do, as it is what you do!
Absolutely. Narrowing in!
Thanks for this, very useful for someone like me!!
You're welcome, glad to hear it!
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!