Jack of All Trades

By Enoch Lau - Own work (photo), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1586330

 . . . master of none.

I have too many hobbies and interests. I probably have too many college degrees. I try to be too many people at once.

Unfortunately this is a habit I formed early and it has influenced my career. Although I have generally been successful, I think I would be farther if I had specialized in a particular area and stuck with it longer. Within the field of Healthcare Information Technology, I can work on many different types of systems and data. I can solve a wide variety of problems, implement diverse systems, etc. But I don't have very high skill in any one area.

There are a few people smart enough to take on several disciplines and be high achievers in all of them, but these people are truly rare. Not everyone can be an Elon Musk or Francis Bacon (or Roger Bacon). One bit of advice I might have for young workers at the beginning of their career is to focus on one thing and become a true expert in the field. This might serve you better.

On the other hand, you need to be able to deal with change. But it isn't necessarily something you should choose later in life. It's good to change early, more difficult to change later.