From your mouth to God’s ears. I’ve been guilty of the same thing—being a jack of all trades, both while looking for work and even at times in my own business. I still believe broad skill sets do add real value. The problem is that the hiring process isn’t designed to evaluate range; it’s designed to answer a much narrower question.
When someone is hiring, they’re usually asking one thing: I need X—can you do X? Relationships solve that problem better than résumés ever will. People who know you can see the full picture over time—how you think, how you adapt, where else you’re useful. A résumé tries to compress all of that into a single moment, and that’s where breadth starts to work against you. It muddies the signal.
So skills still matter. A lot. They just tend to compound through trust and context, not through mass applications. One strong connection beats a hundred cold résumés because it answers the real question faster.
From your mouth to God’s ears. I’ve been guilty of the same thing—being a jack of all trades, both while looking for work and even at times in my own business. I still believe broad skill sets do add real value. The problem is that the hiring process isn’t designed to evaluate range; it’s designed to answer a much narrower question.
When someone is hiring, they’re usually asking one thing: I need X—can you do X? Relationships solve that problem better than résumés ever will. People who know you can see the full picture over time—how you think, how you adapt, where else you’re useful. A résumé tries to compress all of that into a single moment, and that’s where breadth starts to work against you. It muddies the signal.
So skills still matter. A lot. They just tend to compound through trust and context, not through mass applications. One strong connection beats a hundred cold résumés because it answers the real question faster.