Specialise or Generalise

[hobnob]

Really? I think you have no idea what you're talking about. Cloud certs are some of the highest ROI certs you can get right now. Extremely high in demand.

Azure and AWS both have different skill levels (like most certification programs). For Azure, there's Fundamentals, Associate, and Expert. For AWS, there's Foundational, Associate, and Professional. The higher you go, the more valuable the cert.

[vwdan]

I've been super niche for just about 10 years now - and for every year of it I've aid "This market is dying, I need to get out" and then something crops up, I seem to earn a bit more money and then all of a sudden I'm 10 years in.

There's no way I'd be sat earning my day rate, outside IR35 as a generalist. But, of course, it depends how you define generalist. I'm in infrastructure, so to me generalist means generic wintel (is that phrase still used) / server type guy who can dabble in everything, but couldn't really consult. On the other hand, you could class many enterprise architects as "generalist", but they can absolutely command top whack.

[ChimpMaster]

I've been super niche for just about 10 years now - and for every year of it I've aid "This market is dying, I need to get out" and then something crops up, I seem to earn a bit more money and then all of a sudden I'm 10 years in.

There's no way I'd be sat earning my day rate, outside IR35 as a generalist. But, of course, it depends how you define generalist. I'm in infrastructure, so to me generalist means generic wintel (is that phrase still used) / server type guy who can dabble in everything, but couldn't really consult. On the other hand, you could class many enterprise architects as "generalist", but they can absolutely command top whack.

This is exactly what happened to me, to the point that after 15 years of contracting I found myself with no further work available. But that was 10 years more work than I had initially expected

My mistake was not learning new tech along the way. I put that down to being too busy building a side income and spending much more time with my family. A sacrifice well worth it to me.