What is your speciality - reverting to an old job question

I was thinking … after so many years working in IT, did we manage to close the loop and revert to the question placed more than 15 years ago in interviews “What is your specialty?“. This is something which I get very often in job interviews in Germany and find it interesting to receive after so many years working in Cloud related projects, where having a broader spectrum of knowledge was applauded more. So let’s analyze this.

It was the year 2008. A young and very motivated person went to his interview with a big IT company in order to get a job starting in their IT Academy Program. Beside the regular HR and technical questions some where related to how he saw his future and what topic would be more interesting to deepen his knowledge. Take note of topic singular, not topics plural. The young fella decided to build his base and deepen his knowledge in Managed Services Sector, with specialty Managed Server Windows. And that is what he has done for the next 10 years, learning each new release of operating system, getting a better understanding what is required from managed service perspective and enjoying working in IT. It was a time when all made sense, going to work was a pleasure not a must and everyone knew what they were supposed to do. You had specialists from each technology, when project came they were taken from each team and put together to bring an additional service or customer to live. Then came Cloud …

All of a sudden, there was no longer enough to know one technology, it was expected to have a broader knowhow of each Cloud Service. The projects were product oriented and if you had a Cloud certification, you were supposed to know a bit of everything. Networking, Operating System, Database, Storage etc, were bundled into a single role and the expectation was in the course of 1-2 years to have understand and be able to advise in projects for all of the aforementioned services. I have noticed the shift also in recruitment where if you mentioned that you were an expert of one technology, like for example Microsoft Windows, you were almost immediately asked and what are the additional services and skills you have, as this was no longer enough to shortlist you for a second interview. The era of Cloud has started and changed completely how employee capabilities were seen. It was expected from you to have a broader knowledge of not one single topic and be capable also to integrate and adjust in each project additional skills (organization, project management etc). Then came international uncertainty and topics like sovereign cloud …

This is a trend I have noticed in the last year especially in interviews and what is looked from different managers. The questions in interviews are going back to the roots, sort of say. Even though the profile shows a broad spectrum of technologies which were used in the last years in different projects, it almost always followed by the question “What is your specialty?“. After investing the last 5-7 years in understanding different tech stacks at a surface level, as I believe knowing everything is reserved to only a few, you are being asked again, what is your main topic. At first I was confused by the question. In the last years the projects varied from Backup and Recovery, Server Migration, Cloud Migration, Network implementation and the list continues, therefore no specific service. Then I came to the realization … we have learned the lesson with Cloud and we are starting to look again for experts for different topics, as Cloud is a too broad definition of knowledge set. So we went full circle Service Expert - Service Generalist - Service Expert .

I don’t believe that this means we will have such a clear separation of responsibilities like in Managed Services time but we are heading to a more structured approach in what is looked from the recruitment companies. Having a specialty lifts also the pressure felt from the employee in interviews, where he did his best to have a proven track record of project oriented tech stack. It only makes sense also from a sovereign cloud perspective to have again experts for each technology, that are capable to understand integration with other technologies, based on the Cloud experience in the last years. Sovereign Cloud is a topic which is slowly but surely appearing more often in all interviews as the search in Europe for a reliable and trustworthy partner intensifies.

So what can be done from the perspective of the employee? Having a good baseline I believe is crucial now more than ever. For example I see on social media more and more, that developers are expendable, that it makes no sense to learn Windows/Linux, that everything will be overtaken by AI. My advice would be, if you are wanting to start a career in IT, to remove that noise and focus on what you find interesting and what makes you sink your teeth into. Being that Server Administration, Application development, Database management and the list goes on, the demand will diminish but will always be there. Focus on learning what you like most, maintain an open ear to technologies like AI and go with confidence in the interviews. AI is a disruptive technology but understanding the requirements of the users and how this relates to technical services will not disappear.

And maybe, just maybe, you will get to experience working in an environment that motivates you and brings a smile to your face every morning. I know … a bit optimistic … but achievable again if we truly focus on what matters.

Until next time, TFG