Common advice I give about writing is to give away the goods right out of the gate, so let’s just get right to it today: It mostly doesn’t matter where you fall on the generalist vs. specialist spectrum. Truly! As an editor, I’m more interested in your skills and abilities as a journalist than anything else.
(Just real quick, if you’re not familiar with those terms, they basically mean exactly what you’d think: Generalist reporters/writers cover a little bit of everything — very much what I consider myself — while specialists focus on one specific topic, beat, or line of coverage.)
I believe an excellent reporter/writer can tackle most stories, and I would take a great generalist reporter/writer over a mediocre specialist. But vice versa, specialists have knowledge and insight that a generalist simply doesn’t, and would likely never, possess, which is a huge advantage for many stories.
So, big pluses and minuses to each side. The more important ideas you should think about when asking yourself which side you want to focus on are:
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