Is the Era of "Jack of All Trades" Back?
Is the Era of "Jack of All Trades" Back?
Future of work
The versatile professional, once dismissed as a 'jack of all trades,' may soon become the most valuable player on the team.
In my first job as a web designer in an agency about 20 years ago, I had a role that spanned from providing a brief questionnaire to clients and asking follow-up questions to understand what the customer wanted, designing the UI, creating the wording, getting feedback, iterating on designs, securing sign-offs, coding the UI, testing it, and handing it over to the back-end developer. All in a single role.
I didn't know it back then, but I was doing the business analyst, UX/UI designer, front-end developer, QA specialist, copywriter, and a little bit of PM roles all at once.
Yes, I was working in a small agency, but this was common practice, even in larger companies, for designers to code their own designs.
In the years that followed, people became more specialised in their roles to the point that I had to hide and only provide hints in my CV that I knew how to code. I was afraid of being labeled as the "jack of all trades, master of none" and potentially compromising my chances of getting a job.
With recent AI advancements, there's significant discussion about how the future of work might look. Prominent CEOs in the AI space like OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei suggest that AI will function as an experienced coder by the end of the year. I tried coding with Claude and, with my rusty knowledge of the newest UI libraries, was able to create a medium-sized application in just a few hours over a weekend.
This is too easy; the AI progress appears to be in my advantage
I thought.
With my UX knowledge, if I add elite development skills, I could offer a more complete package to any employer."
But then another thought crept into my mind:
What if someone else downstream is thinking that with AI's help, they too can be a UX designer, researcher, developer, and provide an end-to-end project?
Even with advanced AI models, it will take considerable time to generate complex enterprise applications with just a few prompts if there will ever be a need for traditional applications in the future. But in the meantime, I feel companies will increasingly value experienced professionals with comprehensive knowledge across the entire project lifecycle, even if not at expert level in every area.
Ultimately, AI assistants may take over as specialists in various domains, while humans will provide that essential integrative perspective and human touch needed for a complete project. The versatile professional, once dismissed as a "jack of all trades," may soon become the most valuable player on the team.