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Being a Jack of All Trades Is Not a Value Proposition
generalist careers career positioning personal brand value proposition specialist vs generalist transferable skills mid-career strategy leadership change management interviewing resume advice career navigation WorkReady Next Shift

Being a Jack of All Trades Is Not a Value Proposition

Tell someone you wear a lot of hats and watch what happens behind their eyes. You meant range. They heard vague. Being a generalist isn't the problem, but presenting breadth as a substitute for evidence and a clear professional promise is. Here's the difference between a real integrator and an unfocused generalist, why knowing where your expertise stops is a credential rather than a limitation, and a three-part test you can answer in thirty seconds.

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Forty Is the Protected Age: What I Learned About Age Discrimination at Work
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Forty Is the Protected Age: What I Learned About Age Discrimination at Work

A conversation with an employment lawyer produced one line that stopped me cold. Under federal law, the protected age is 40. Not 50, not 55, not somewhere near retirement. Forty. That threshold says something most people miss: age bias doesn't wait for the end of a career. It can land on professionals at exactly the moment they've built the expertise, judgment, and credibility organizations claim to want. Here's how it shows up, what to watch for, and what employers should be doing about it now.

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