They say; “variety is the spice of life”.
Is it possible to, at once, being in Business Development, Communication, Operations, Human Resource, and more?
Those times are gone long if your resume features unconnected positions, the trick is to weave the skills together into a broader set of knowledge and experience. A few hundred years ago, it was considered that a man with 12 talents has nothing to eat for dinner. They even had a word for it, Renaissance man, do-it-alls, well rounded and last but not the least jack of all trades. Such jacks and jills ought to be highly employable on their career trajectory.
Here Are The Top 6 Reasons Why Being A Jack Of All Trades, Assures Employers That I Possess The Skills They Are After And Get Them Excited About Hiring Me.
1. Blessing Or Curse- I transformed my job-hopper history into a set goal where I want to go in my career. Having skills in many different areas is pretty awesome, isn’t it? Apply the principle of 80/20 to skills, 20% of the moves in a sports account for 80% of the scoring, does that mean you settling for mediocre? No, it means you are extremely versatile and can take on a variety of projects from different angles.
For example, I had one job in human resources and another in operations because ultimately I want to manage a company and bridge each job to the next to round out my knowledge.
2. Don’t Create A Laundry List Of The Task In Each Role- Diversity of intellectual playgrounds helped me to maximize my experience in the organization. I once went to an advertising event, the most common question that was asked “what do you do?”, or “what is your job description?” I represented the entire advertising and creative department of my company, so my job description a 2-page list of different titles and duties. So instead of lengthy detail about the job description, I enlightened them with specific and quantify results wherever possible. Including a line like, mastered new operating procedures, and have opened several new avenues within 12 months.
3. Don’t Focus On Other Peoples But’s- They say there are only two things that are certain in life death and taxes. Other people projections and insecurities could be, but how on earth you going to pay your mortgages, but you are already good at it then why you want to quit, but you need a stable job, but won’t you get bored, but you didn’t study communications and finally but you need to specialize? Seriously so what! Harrison Ford was a great carpenter but if he stuck with that just because he was good at it than we did not have Indiana Jones. I love trying anything interesting. We are tipping on one side of work-life balance see-saws like a pandemic or epidemic. I don’t need to listen to this societal pressure and these entire but’s out there because I can opt to have an extraordinary life. I am a Human Resource Officer and VP Business Development and Manager Communications and Master of my own life.
4. Specialist Or Generalist- I stumbled upon these two words and then something about that intrigued me, I embrace being a jack of all trades because I am willing to get my hands dirty in learning about things like client relations, SAP, operations, advertising or sales. My entire life I have been decently talented at just about everything and passionate about many different interests. In the 15th century, a Renaissance man can do all things and I believe that’s still true that men and women can do a lot. Da Vinci, a person whose areas of interest include painting, science, literature, music, architecture, and invention and there are many more so it’s certainly safe to say that he was not the specialist yet a legend.
5. The Power Of Polymathy- What it would be like if no one would ever tell you that you had to pursue a single career path. Would it be different than the life you live today? Specialization is great but humans are naturally polymath since the time of our birth. I used the knowledge that was already in my nugget as a stepping stone to the next thing such as handling training to building client relations to communications and what not. I am an opportunistic learner, the things that are in hand, it may a problem I want to learn or an intellectual itch that I want to scratch. I used every profile as a stepping stone to next to ride the overlap between two professions and that’s how I spin a jack-off-all trade’s work experience.
6. Be More Creative With Your Inner Renaissance- I have had the opportunity to use T&D expertise to accomplish managerial skills in various roles over the past several years. The hard thing to become a renaissance person is not about chemistry, biology, mathematics, or social science that you can learn in school but how to learn new things every day. I make sure I work with others who have skills I want to learn and then turn around and mentor others. My portfolio diversity gives me a unique ability that a little bit of everything adds up like I climbed the ladder from an Executive in Human Resource to VP in Business Development with laser-like focus. Working in different environments kept my skills sharp and that allows me to grow over time.
Last but not the least, who cares who is better, there will always be someone “better” at some point in time. How you can be actively participative, is by coming out of your comfort zone. Very rightly said by Oscar Wilde “you can never be over-dressed or over-educated.” I learn by doing things and I push my boundaries to make smart goals. Life is short why don’t you try the possible; choose your adventure which starts with you who knows the ideas you dug in will make a difference.
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