You’re probably familiar with the phrase, “A jack of all trades is a master of none.” But have you ever heard the second part of this quote?

It goes like this: “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

That kind of changes things, doesn’t it?

The quote perfectly ties into the topic of this episode, where we tackle the question of who is better: a generalist or a specialist.

Our guest is Estera Sendecka, Creative Graphic Designer at NaviParking, who has years of experience as a designer in different work environments. She dives into this topic from three perspectives: that of a young professional, a coworker and a boss to finally clear up this ongoing debate and give you tips on how to advance your career and stand out on the job market.

Estera believes that instead of thinking about generalists and specialists as polar opposites, we need to think about it as a spectrum. On one side, you have generalists and on the other specialists, and most of us fit somewhere in between on the spectrum. Some of us lean towards one and others towards the other.

“This whole dilemma is important on an individual level, like when it comes to career planning, when it comes to thinking about your career as an individual, whether you want to specialise deeply and excel at that or whether you want to dip in different fields and combine it to a whole new different level of value that you bring to a company.”

While working at NaviParking, Estera was part of creating and working on many projects (including this podcast, Smart City Navigators). She explains that her time at NaviParking is teaching her a lot about teamwork and what it takes to succeed as a professional in a startup environment.

“So you may think that startups would need versatile people, people with different sets of skills, different sets of experiences because they can do the job and there will be only a few of them. But at the same time, in order to stand out in a market, you need something special. So you need a specialist, right? You need people who have the sort of skills that will make you a leader in the market, and they are the people who can do the job. So basically, you need both.”

About working on Smart City Navigators, she says, “This whole project brought me so much joy, and I don’t believe we would’ve been able to achieve this on our own. Each of us brought this perfect generalist and specialist at the same time perspective to this project and that made it excellent, I believe.”

Watch the full episode to find out why Estera’s studies taught her why you need to wait before becoming a specialist, what advice she has for effective collaboration in a team and what other great tips she has for young professionals.