Developing Your Specialty

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The Lion’s Pride: Adding Value

Developing Your Specialty

There’s the old theory that if you throw enough stuff against the wall, something will stick.

And, while something will in all likelihood stick, odds are that far less stuff will stick. In short, this time-honored approach is a sucker’s bet – the odds of success are lower than the chances for failure.

In terms of job hunting, this means wasted effort, time and resources – three things most job hunters can least afford to waste.

The smart money, then, is to develop a specialty. This will help cultivate and maintain career focus, as well as reduce waste. When developing your specialty, keep these ideas in mind:

Specialties demand higher pay. Neurosurgeons make more money than general practitioners. So do most podiatrists and urologists. Why? Because they specialize in their craft. Likewise, those in technical professions generally out earn their jack-of-all-trades brethren. Indeed, an historian is more apt to command a higher salary if she concentrates on, say, the Ming Dynasty rather than history in general. No matter the profession, specialists command bigger paychecks.

Have a specialty…and a broad base. Some take the specialist concept to the extremes, however. After all, how many German language geothermal nuclear radiation engineers are needed in Kalispell, Montana? Highly specialized though she may be, she has in fact specialized herself out of the market. Much in the same way, if Terrell Owens only ran one pass route (no matter how well he might run it), opposing teams would quickly catch on and Owens would be useless. That’s why Owens knows a myriad of plays: he may specialize in going over the middle, but to be successful, he’s also learned how to run posts and run reverses. Specialists should likewise have a broad base of knowledge and experience to draw from or they run the same risk as our German language geothermal nuclear radiation engineers in Montana: specializing themselves out of a job.

Love it. If you have a passion for something, you can develop a specialty. Lance Armstrong, for instance, specialized in the Tour de France. He loved it and, as a result, won an unprecedented seven straight titles. Toward the end of his professional cycling career, though, Armstrong admits he couldn’t stand cycling anymore. As a result, he retired from competition. He loved it and excelled. When he lost his passion, he moved on.

Excellence defined. To excel, do whatever you do well, then do well whatever you do. In other words, success can be obtained by specializing and doing well in your specialty. If you’re an electrician specializing in residential electricity, then do that well. If you run sprints, then run them well.

IN THE CARAVAN: Develop a specialty within your profession to command higher pay and achieve more success. But make sure you have a broad skill and experience base – and a passion for it.

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