[Sigia-l] Anyone suggest a better global list?

[Paola Kathuria]

Laurie Gray wrote:
> Just curious, by show of digital hands, are readers more generalist or
> specialist? And, are they happy there, or do they feel the need to move
> in the other direction for whatever reason?

I think I must be a generalist.

I've worked for my own small (2-3 people) Internet companies
for the last 15 years, specialising in database-backed web sites;

we each quickly found our strengths in projects. However, we knew
we couldn't do it all and so we hired expertise as needed.

I've always found it hard to explain what I do - I have called
myself a web architect, web producer and web developer. I did the
requirements definition including site structure, high-level page
prototypes, database design, programming, testing, documentation,
training and project management.

I hired people to create wireframes, the graphic design and HTML
page templates with CSS stylesheets. My colleagues did the
web server configuration, database optimisation and anything AJAXy.

We've decided to go back to contracting for a year. I've realised
that by picking and choosing my involvement in projects, I do not
neatly fit into any hire-able role - without direct wire-framing
experience, I'm not considered an IA and most PHP/MySQL contracts
require JavaScript.

I suspect that the answer to whether one is a generalist or
specialist depends on whether you work for your own company or
in a large organisation.


Paola
--
http://www.paolability.com/