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Sloan the DEV Moderator for The DEV Team

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Sloan's Inbox: Striving to be a T-shaped developer... how to find my specialization?

Hello! Sloan, DEV Moderator and resident mascot, back with another question submitted by a DEV community member. πŸ¦₯

For those unfamiliar with the series, this is another installment of Sloan's Inbox. You all send in your questions, I ask them on your behalf anonymously, and the community chimes in to offer advice. Whether it's career development, office politics, industry trends, or improving technical skills, we cover all sorts of topics here. If you want to send in a question or talking point to be shared anonymously via Sloan, that'd be great; just scroll down to the bottom of the post for details on how.

So, let's get down to business...

Today's question is:

I've been honing my skills as a software dev, but still consider myself a beginner. I've heard folks talking about T-shaped developers and it seems like it's a common goal to specialize in a specific area, but then also nurture a wide range of basic skills that aren't necessarily tied to tech. I feel like I'm getting to the point where I need to specialize, but I'm not really sure which area to move into. How do you go about discovering your specialization? Any tips or things to consider when looking to specialize in something?

Share your thoughts and lets help a fellow DEV member out! Remember to keep kind and stay classy. πŸ’š


Want to submit a question for discussion or ask for advice?Β Visit Sloan's Inbox! You can choose to remain anonymous.

Top comments (2)

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taikedz profile image
Tai Kedzierski

You can try to look for something actively, or you can base your choice on what you feel you get the most out of.

I guess the more you work on something, the more you become a specialist in it. That's specialisation by accident.

You could look around at tech topics and themes in the general media to find out what you think would have a fruitful future. That's specialisation of domain - rather broad tech-wise, but domain specialisation is good to have on a team, often as a lead or interfacing to management (or even management itself - would be nice to have managers with more hands-on experience).

You could look at various tech stacks and see which ones you find most interesting or most exciting for the different use cases of tech you've seen so far. Typically that's going to be languages or engines or libraries, or particular solution ecosystems, etc. That's specialisation by stack or even by specific tech - these are the gurus of particular solutions and the deep-divers, tinkerers and architects'.

You could look back on all the tools you've worked with, and find which ones were either the most frustrating, or the most difficult domain to solve, and focus on improving the situation. That's specialisation out of spite. F/// this why won't it work *yeet* 🀣

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

AI of course. While it’s not to late…

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