2022-09-06

Are you a π-shaped person?

At the beginning of my career I was an I-shaped person and I've been that for a while.

If you're not familiar with the term, being an I-shaped person means that you are really good at doing one single thing. For example you can be very good at software development in one particular tech stack and that's it. Shallowly and generally speaking an I-shaped person is someone that doesn't have many general soft skills often needed while working in a team.

After that phase, I know that I needed to be a T-shaped person, which means that you have cross general knowledge of many aspects of your working field and you're still specialized in one particular thing. You know you are a T-shaped person when you are interested in more soft skills that enrich you and your career.

Eventually, in more recent times, I've came across the concept of Pi-shaped person. The terms comes from the Pi sign, "π". I'm sure you already catch what it can refer to, right?

Exactly! Pi-shaped people are those professionals that have a broad cross knowledge in various areas, but are very expert and specialized in two or more areas.

Just imagine how much more value these people can bring into a team or a company.