As a student preparing for data anaylst & science roles, should I generalize vs specialize?

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This question was posted on Springboard forum.

Here’s my answer:

It depends on your target industry & where they are in their life-cycle.

It has four stages: Startup, Growth, Maturity, Decline.

Industry lifecycle

Generalization is great in earlier stages. If you are targeting jobs at startups; generalize. You should know enough about lot of things.

T-shaped professionals are great for Growth stage. They specialize in something but still know enough about lot of things. E.g. Sr Growth/Marketing Analyst. Know enough about analytics & data science to be dangerous but specializes in marketing.

Specialization is great for mature industries. They know a lot about few things. E.g. Statisticians in an Insurance industry. They have made careers out of building risk models.