Agree, there’s nothing like a “best shape” because as you said, different projects require different set of skills.
Regarding the AI, I fill like T-Shaped Developers and similar shapes, one can bring more value. With the help of AI you can solve problems in depth by making a few prompts but you still must have some fundamentals in that area.
Great post. I think it can be very useful to people who don’t know to identify which path to take but know what they like from their jobs too. How would you name each shape to help them identify the jobs they should seek for?
Well, it really depends on the job description. However, I'd say the Front-End/Back-End are T-Shaped since you should be capable of thing several things.
Full-Stack could be considered as a PI-Shaped because you have to be good at both Front-End and Back-End. It can also be extended to a Comb-Shaped if the role requires more technical knowledge and skills like Infrastructure.
For I-Shaped, I'd say jobs like Security Engineer / AI Engineer but again it's important to consider the different requirements part of the description.
Nice, I like how you distributed them. Some people would consider Frontend-End as PI-shaped because they need to know a bit more of networking, UX, APIs. Though now with AI, I’m not sure what will happen with it.
I think these shapes could apply for the different levels of leadership too. Higher the level the more comb-shape we become.
And do you think these shapes can apply too for other roles? Such as UX, PM or EM?
One lesson I learned is that there is no "Best shape"; different teams and projects require different skills and people.
Do you think the surge of AI tools will move the balance to a specific shape?
Really cool article, Petar, thanks for the mention!
Agree, there’s nothing like a “best shape” because as you said, different projects require different set of skills.
Regarding the AI, I fill like T-Shaped Developers and similar shapes, one can bring more value. With the help of AI you can solve problems in depth by making a few prompts but you still must have some fundamentals in that area.
Great post. I think it can be very useful to people who don’t know to identify which path to take but know what they like from their jobs too. How would you name each shape to help them identify the jobs they should seek for?
Well, it really depends on the job description. However, I'd say the Front-End/Back-End are T-Shaped since you should be capable of thing several things.
Full-Stack could be considered as a PI-Shaped because you have to be good at both Front-End and Back-End. It can also be extended to a Comb-Shaped if the role requires more technical knowledge and skills like Infrastructure.
For I-Shaped, I'd say jobs like Security Engineer / AI Engineer but again it's important to consider the different requirements part of the description.
Nice, I like how you distributed them. Some people would consider Frontend-End as PI-shaped because they need to know a bit more of networking, UX, APIs. Though now with AI, I’m not sure what will happen with it.
I think these shapes could apply for the different levels of leadership too. Higher the level the more comb-shape we become.
And do you think these shapes can apply too for other roles? Such as UX, PM or EM?