I stumbled into the first full-time work I had. Out of a journalism graduate degree, my skills were general enough to fit into web design and development. But the nature of the work shifted over the years. Now being able to do the rudimentary work of the front end, with a minimum of Javascript, is not sufficient for the development positions of today. As in many other fields, only specialization will get you the long-term role. Additionally, a well-crafted prompt will do the development in short order.
I subsequently got into blogging about cyber. I put up a hard fight against generated pieces and SEO-driven creative predictability.
More recently, evaluating, annotating, and rewriting responses made me realize what the models are capable of, but also of my supreme value to employers who need an indispensable human guide to these processes. However, the roles for generalists are waning and subject matter expertise is becoming more valued.
That’s what I wanted to focus on. The value of the human.
“Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” by David Epstein hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller with a challenge to the conventional wisdom that early specialization is the key to success. He argues that generalists are the ones who excel, against the grain that says specialization is the way to the future. Epstein asserts that generalists have the creativity, intellectual agility, and connection-building ability that specialized people do not.
But the evolution of the job market challenges this claim. Non-AI companies are “trimming” (firing) those employees who are not specialized, certain roles in particular. Gone are entry-level analysts and loan officers, HR and recruiting professionals, offshore call centers for Tier-1 support, middle management and logistical coordinators, generalist software engineers, and various roles relating to “efficiency” cuts (see DOGE). Simultaneously, hiring of new grads at top firms has dropped 25% since 2023. The rumored cuts were realized.
From 2025 to 2026, the “structural rebalancing” and trimming on certain industries included:
– The finance and fintech sector saw entry-level analysts and loan officers being cut.
– Big tech (non-AI) saw Amazon and Microsoft cut ~45,000 roles combined, mostly in “experimental” hardware and HR/recruiting.
– Customer service saw the disappearance of many offshore call centers.
– Retail and e-commerce saw middle management and logistics fired.
– Software companies have been letting go generalist software engineers and specialists-only employee hiring.
– Government and federal cuts of over 300,000 due to federal “efficiency.”
– Meta and Snap announced cuts to about 10% and 16%, respectfully, of staff prioritizing infrastructure over employee headcount.
The trends are toward the specialist.
In software, AI handles the boilerplate, documentation, and basic debugging. Cybersecurity, cloud, data engineering, qualitative researchers, AI-risk auditors, and supply chain automation engineers are growing areas. Roles around AI ethics and compliance have grown over 142% year-over-year. User experience designers who focus on how humans interact with LLM interfaces are getting a bump.
But Epstein may have a valid argument. He suggests that while specialization is useful for “closed, predictable” environments, the modern world is characterized by problems that require people to connect knowledge across fields and domains. In the new tooled culture, employees who can orchestrate the different models and tools to automate a department’s workflow will get the interest of recruiters. Generalists with the weapon of integrating and synthesizing skillfulness will dominate.
It’s a mess of models and functionality. A hundred models, hundreds of uses. Someone has to organize it. You must either build it or you must make it all happen for your employer.