What’s Better: A Jack of All Trades or a Master of One?
The value of having a portfolio career
The expression “Jack of all trades, master of none” is used in reference to a person who has dabbled in many areas, but is not specialized in any one particular knowledge area or skill.
The expression is often applied with the second part of it left out. When someone is referred to as a “jack of all trades”, it’s often intended to be a compliment. They can be placed in any number of situations and will probably have a tool in their knowledge-and-skill toolbox that is best suited to the situation at hand.
By contrast, adding back the second part to the expression can carry a negative connotation. A person on the receiving end of this designation is considered to have knowledge covering a number of areas, but their knowledge in any one of those areas is superficial. In other words, being a jack of all trades becomes something of less value.
The rising need for people to be good at more than one discipline
So, which one is better to be in the world of work or business?
“Master of one trade” OR “Jack of all trades. Master of none”
I think the answer is “it depends”. The value of being a jack of all trades depends on the context, of course.
In a small startup company, being a jack of all trades may offer the versatility needed when it is not feasible to resource a specific specialized skill set.
At a large company that is resource rich and offers a large portfolio of products and services, specialization may be of more value if it gives the company a unique advantage over its competitors.
However, there is growing need for people who have a portfolio of disciplines for which they have very good knowledge and skill (although they are not necessarily considered experts in any of them). This need arises due to several factors, two of which are listed below:
- A move toward a project economy, where in order to remain competitive companies are forced to have capabilities to change their organization (business transformation) rather than just run their organization (operations).*
- Companies are increasingly seeing the advantage of diversity of thought and perspectives, so they are actively modernizing their hiring practices and the way they organize through diversity, equity, and inclusiveness (DEI).
Since the world is changing so fast, people don’t have time to become the best at one particular discipline. Rather, organizations have a need for their people to be capable of doing a good enough job (not necessarily perfect) at one discipline when it is needed, then switch to and execute another discipline adequately and in quick fashion.
The “Portfolio Career”
Since the beginning of my career, I have had no all-encompassing, relatable title for all that I do. At least, not something as straight forward as a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a plumber, etc.
- I’ve always been good at organizing people and structuring initiatives and projects. So I’m a project manager, right?
- I am also good at strategic and critical thinking, a capability developed as I pursued my MBA and through working with executive management teams. So strategic advisor, maybe?
- And what about countless others who I’ve developed over the years? To them, I am primarily a coach and mentor.
At any one time, I can activate my skills and knowledge for any one of these disciplines if the situation called for it. That is called versatility and it is a very valuable thing to have.
Historically, not having an all-encompassing, relatable title for all that I do was a problem for me. That’s because companies love to label workers, fit them into column A or B, and then base their pay scales on those labels and categories. It’s also easier for tactical and operations-minded managers to wrap their heads around.
So when I tried to promote myself on the job market, the compromise was to call myself a project manager. I’d get hired and compensated as a project manager.
But that was just one part of me — one of many that an organization would enjoy while I worked there. So an organization would pay for just the project management, but get much more than that.
Thankfully, today there is a term for people like me who have made a career of being a jack of all trades (or at least being really good at a few disciplines). It’s called a portfolio career.
My portfolio career is comprised of being very good at strategic change management, project management, and business consulting and coaching. In 2022, I am focused on applying my portfolio career to the world of business transformation.**
From “portfolio career” to “meaning-making portfolio”
At the end of the day, many of us look for meaning in what we do for a living. By not confining our professional identities to one particular discipline, we open the door to taking on new streams of skill and knowledge that can lead us to fulfillment in, not only our jobs, but our lives as a whole.
As an example, I’ve just recently discovered my passion for writing. I don’t get paid to do it, but a lot of my work is posted on platforms like LinkedIn and Medium. In doing so, I hope to help others get to where they need to be through my writing— a core value of mine called Servant Leadership.
Writing may yet become part of my professional portfolio career, so I keep working at it so that I can eventually incorporate it into my professional life.
In doing so, I’m not just building a portfolio career. I’m diversifying my meaning-making portfolio.***
Concluding thoughts
Does a portfolio career just happen on its own or is it premeditated? I think it’s a little bit of both, really. Portfolio careers are the result of a mix of vision, relationships, a person knowing what they are good at (and yet continually adding to their list of competencies), and plain dumb luck.
We now live in a world that is changing at an exceptionally fast pace, so a field or trade that is popular today may be outdated tomorrow.
As an example, project management was a fairly hot field in the mid-2000s up until the mid-2010s. While still very much in demand, some of the space that was previously occupied by project management has been usurped by change management in the 2020s. I have adapted accordingly.
If you’re already a jack of all trades, embrace it! If you’re not, consider becoming one. If anything you’ll have a better chance of ensuring that you get fulfillment in doing something within your portfolio career.
References and notes:
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For those who are unfamiliar, business transformation is an integrated approach undertaken by many organizations to transform how they operate so that they remain competitive in a fast-paced changing world. The approach covers making change along technological, process, human capital, structural, and cultural dimensions of the organization and it often involves several disciplines, including (but not limited to) change management, project management, process automation, information systems migration and upgrades, organizational development and design.
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