Who is more valuable? A specialists or a "jack of all trades"?

Person A no contest

Depends on what the 1 thing person A knows is.

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Person B: Knowledgeable about every facet of the trade, but isn't an expert in any of them.

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In my world, it's Person B. Person B is able to identify when he/she needs assistance and knows where to find the expertise. Most tasks/assignments/projects can be completed without being an expert.

Person A would need to bring in expertise for everything except particular projects in which their specialized knowledge is applicable.

the scenario which brought upon this question is that I work with a young coworker who has only done 1 thing for the 4 years she has been here and is getting frustrated about getting pigeon-holed in that one thing

I've tried to explain to her that she is now the expert in that role, but she is growing frustrated and feels like her career is suffering

in my office, I'm the "jack of all trades" guy, although I am the "expert" in a few areas for the office (not the company though) and she believes that I'm more valuable, while I keep telling her that he role is more valuable

although the if we ever lost the work she is doing, then her value diminishes greatly over night

I think you have to have both. Let me use my personal example.

I'm a CPA> I know a decent amount about a lot of areas of tax law. Enough to be conversational, and enough to know what to look for. Further, I am considered an expert in partnership taxation.

I have clients all over the map, but a lot of them tend to be partnerships.

In addition, whenever other people in the firm have really sticky partnership situations, I am almost always brought in to assist with that situation.

And, whenever I have a situation with one of my clients that I don't have a deep knowledge in, for example, payroll tax issues, I go and find a specialist to assist if needed. But I know enough about payroll tax issues to get the work started, and what kind of specialist I need to find.

For lower level positions, it's probably better to be a jack of all trades. I want a secretary who can do all manner of office work, not one that is awesome at writing letters but doesn't know how to use the phone system.

For higher level positions, being a specialist is great, if there is enough of a market for your specialty.

I can see where your co-worker feels the way she does. She may feel her opportunities are limited if there isn't much of a market for her specialty.

We see this a lot in the CPA world with Big Four. Someone will go work for a Big Four firm for 5 years and become an amazing expert at some tiny provision about tax law. But there are few clients and firms who need that speciality. They have absolutely no broad base of knowledge, so when they try to transition to a smaller firm, they are lost. The good news is that they generally are smart enough to pick it up eventually, but they are behind compared to their peers.

And before any Big Four people out there downvote me... you know I am speaking truth.

She is right to be concerned. If she gets laid off being an expert in only one small area greatly diminishes her chances of finding a job.

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we just laid off 2 people and we got the "make yourself too valuable to be laid off" speech from the CEO

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Sounds like a fantastic place to work.

So it sounds like in this situation, there is more value to her to be multi-faceted because she fears she might have to find a new job at some point in the near future.

In general, I think both are just as valuable as the other. I work at a large engineering firm and our project managers have to know a little about a lot and the content specialists have to know a lot about few things but both are super critical to executing projects correctly, timely and under budget.

Person A in 9 of 10 situations.

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so the reason this conversation came up is the fact that we just laid off 2 people and we got the "make yourself too valuable to be laid off" speech from the CEO

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Again, that can go in different directions.

If the skill this person possesses is rare and in high need in your company, that's great for her.

On the other hand, if the skill is rare but rarely used in the company, that can become a liability.