On June 19, 2025 two separate articles were published which truly touched me
- Charity Majors – In praise of Normal Engineers https://charity.wtf/2025/06/19/in-praise-of-normal-engineers/
- Martin Fowler – Expert Generalists https://martinfowler.com/articles/expert-generalist.html
The reasons I am highlighting them is that they are bringing to the fore two key challenges that I am facing in my career growth and progression
- As a technologist who is very interested in technology service provision at the front lines – working with developers and teams in the trenches, I am a generalist with experience across multiple sectors and facets of the software delivery lifecycle.
- I work well with specialists in teams to bring out the best in them to deliver software based tools and solutions.
- I act as a bridge between business stakeholders and technology teams – translating between the two
- I have experience at the executive level understanding their pain points, challenges and points of view
- I have experience as a software engineer, working and leading engineering teams – this is what I love best
- Thus I end up having a challenge articulating my value proposition to potential employers – since they are only used to working with specialists
- The comb metaphor an evolution of I, T-shaped and PI shaped skillsets https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ssmusoke_whats-your-breadth-and-depth-of-knowledge-activity-7059588477100654592-KW74?utm_source=social_share_send&utm_medium=member_desktop_web&rcm=ACoAAAG3aCMBNJv-ckREKm41ZsSnfe-BPet83UE
- The goal is not 10x engineers but 10x engineering teams
- Nothing great was ever built by a single person
- Teams deliver multiples more value than a single developer, although at times only a single developer is needed
- Onboarding newbies, growing and mentoring engineers is a goal of any senior, my first mentor Charles Mukasa, told me always work yourself out of a job, find a train your replacement for any role you have
- The 10x engineering hackers are the 1%, the rest of the world is made up of normal engineers who can deliver extra-ordinary value and solutions
- The keys to success are:
- Learn the fundamentals
- Focus on solving customer problems
- Collaborate with others – to go fast go alone, to go far go together
- Found an interesting aligned concept on Polymer Professionals https://www.nathanbroslawsky.com/p/identity-careers-are-over-polymer-professions-are-in/
What are your thoughts on these paradigms
