Specialize or Diversify

Society Business and Career
1

I did my Bachelors in Computer Science and then started working. Decided to continue masters as the company was paying for it and the hours were very flexible. But after a few classes, I found it to be very very boring. Same classes, same teachers, just harder assignments. In other words, no new learning experience.

So, I thought maybe I should do an MBA and then come back to MS … you know by that time technological changes will make the teachers teach something new and different. But unfortunately a couple of classes in the curriculum, I had to relocate.

Then, at this new place my work was closely related to EE people. I did BSP and embedded work and naturally my interest grew in EE. Decided to enroll in EE and am doing the prereqs. The way my advisor sees it, it will take me 5 years to finish a master’s in EE or CPE and he always tries to talk me out of going forward with it. But I am still enrolled and have done 2 semesters of it.

Now, the way I see it a EE degree will diversify my skill set but according to him, there are numerous fields in CS to specialize in and they are different from each other. Same opinion is shared by a number of my friends, including some co-workers/bosses. They think I am wasting time doing EE, instead I should go back for a masters and specialize.

I know, I know, everyone will say, it boils down to what you want to do. To be honest, I want to quit my job and become a librarian or a social worker.

So, is it better to diversity one’s skill set or specialize in just one? Or diversity and then specialize? And please answer from an Engineer’s perspective, it is easy for a doctor to choose specialization.

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Re: Specialize or Diversify

It depends heavily on the sort of job or life you have in mind.

In some cases diversity of skills is more helpful. Like you are trying to enroll yourself in a managerial role or you decide to run your own business related to your field of study. In this situation you just need to have a good understanding of the skills and you have specialised persons available to do the stuff for you. This is what most engineers do spend their lives in. Imagine an EE working in Wapda, who have some number of technicians working under him, he tells them what to do and they do that thing for him. At the end the Engineer gets all the credit.

If you have a mindset of developing new innovations, or you are interested in delivering or expressing your potential to the rest of the World, then select one specific area that is interesting, challenging and easy to adopt for yourself. This will help you if you have a creative mind that encourages you to think and develop. For this, you must put all yout attention on the field of study most appealing to you. But this thing can be harmfull as well. Imagine a lot of persons have specialised in that area and oppurtunities of job/business are limited. A specialization in telecom is very much appreciateable if you can complete it in coming 2-3 years.

So both approaches have good and bad points.