Stefan Erschwendner

almost a decade+ ago while working in big tech i changed my visible title to "applied generalist" because this is basically how i thought about myself from the moment i was on the internet as a kid. i didn't jive with product management cuz i wasn't supposed to write code (ppl would look at you weirdly if you did this), & i hated the idea of being just an engineer because ppl would just treat you like a code monkey, & i hated being in design because ppl often just treated you as a pixel pusher. legacy companies (which i now include big tech as part of) are still organized around highly specific roles like these + levels, & career ladders. i.e. your position in the hierarchy determines not only what you actually do but also how ppl interact with you. i remember walking into meetings with VPs who didn't know how to treat me cuz they couldn't place me in a ladder due to my lack of an officially sanctioned title. & i absolutely hated this existence with a passion. being pigeonholed into a narrowly defined function felt like wearing a kind of straitjacket. this is why the member of technical staff movement with ai companies is so damn necessary. if you as a company do not move towards a more general model like this, you will absolutely get left behind & alienate ppl who can perform across the spectrum.