What's better: being a specialist or a generalist in Swift?
Recorded – watch the full episode on YouTube.
Do you think it's more helpful when it comes to iOS job seeking to be a specialist or a generalist?
John Sundell: In general, I would say that it's better to be a specialist in something. So when you're a specialist and especially if that specialization that you have is compatible with the work that you're applying for. I mean, being a specialist in machine learning is perhaps not the most useful thing if you're going to do graphics programming. Well, they're both on the GPU, so maybe. I don't know. Maybe that was a bad example, but you see my point.
Is the specialization you have a match for what they are looking for? But even though you are a specialist, I think it's again important to keep an open mind and to also know about other technologies as well. So if I take myself as an example, I would definitely say right now I am specializing on Swift.
"I want to keep an open mind, and I think that would be my general recommendation."
I'm specializing on iOS development, Mac development, development for Apple's platforms, but I'm also incredibly interested in always keeping up with what's going on in the Android ecosystem, what's going on with other languages, like Haskell or Rust. I'm keeping up with those things, because the day might come when I don't want to do Swift anymore and I want to do something else, and I don't want to just be there like, “I put all the eggs, again, in the Swift basket,” even though that's what I enjoy right now and I love Swift and I will probably keep doing it for many years, I don't want to just be locked into one way of thinking or one platform or one language. I want to keep an open mind, and I think that would be my general recommendation.
This transcript was recorded as part of Swiftly Speaking. You can watch the full original episode on YouTube, or subscribe to the audio version on Apple Podcasts.
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