I was first introduced to the idiom “Jack of all Trades, Master of None”, early in my IT career. It was presented in such a way as to promote the idea of “specialization”, the idea that one should try to master a specific topic and specialize in that topic. That has frustrated me for years for two reasons. First, I’m far too curious. I enjoy learning and understanding how things work, often at a much deeper level than most. So, to think of working as say, a Network Engineer, working in command lines all day configuring switches and routers and such never appealed to me, though I’m quite capable of the tasks; generally, I prefer a broader scope of responsibility. Secondly, it’s quite clear that the job market for specialists is much narrower than the market for ‘generalists’; companies expect you to take on many different areas of responsibility, networking, email, document management, storage, wireless, phones, data analytics and so on, I’ve never held a job where I could consider myself a specialist; always responsible for a myriad of systems.You can imagine my surprise when, recently, I discovered that “Jack of all Trades, Master of None” is only half the quote. The original quote was written by William Shakespeare about himself. It was meant as a compliment and goes like this: “A Jack-of-all-trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”The value a Jack of all trades brings that a specialist may not is a diverse set of skills to apply to any problem. The ability to look at any problem from several perspectives; the wisdom that comes from this is synergistic.When it comes to technology, that’s me, I am a Jack of all trades! Over the course of my career, I’ve studied (and been certified in) many disciplines within the world of Information Technology including, Windows Server Administration, Virtualization, Network Switching & Routing, scripting & coding in multiple languages, Database development & administration, Wireless Technologies, VoIP, O365 Administration, among others. I’ve also done a fair amount of study in people and project management. Most recently, I’ve spent the past 4 months learning and becoming certified in AWS at the associate level. I’ve now pivoted my studies towards DevOps and am studying Linux administration, Python, Containerization, and Orchestration as well as the CI/CD Pipeline.While there is certainly a need for specialists in all areas of expertise, it's nice to know the world still needs a good generalist as well.