Self-assessing Archetypes
A fiscal year ends, a gamified reflection begins.
For almost as long as I have been a technical writer, I have played Destiny. This was not by design, it just sort of happened that I feel into two very distinctive niches within about three, four months of each other. I had always dreamed of do something more… profound as a profession I think is the word that past-Mikkel would have used (past-Mikkel was misguided) but after a year long stint trying to work in the “noble'“ (a word past-Mikkel certainly did use) profession of health IT support and absolutely hating it, literally anything else would have been better, and technical writing fit my skill set.
I tell this story a lot, but as you’re going to find out both while reading this particular article and also by generally existing in my orbit, I repeat things, but the gist of how I got this job was:
I applied to be a contractor.
The contractor said the company liked me and wanted to do an in-person interview in two days.
I expressed confusion since I lived in a different state.
The contractor said “do you want the interview or not” to which I of course said yes and made the plans to do the thing.
When I got there, my now-manager asked me how the drive was and was visibly confused when I said “six hours wasn’t that bad" because she thought I was local.
And the only reason she thought I was local was because the contractor stripped my original letterhead.
I don’t mind. I lucked out. As it turns out, having a holistic system driven mindset, a knack for writing, and an inherent want to teach people how to do things are the exact qualities that technical writers needs, and over a decade, I have only gotten better at this particular niche. And I like this niche. Last year, I got a pay raise unexpectedly which my boss explained was because I had “advanced so fast [my] salary was not fully indicative of [my] position.” A sentence that is both flattering and infuriating. But this fiscal year, I was asked to think about what I wanted to do next and outside of “keep doing what I’m doing but more?” I didn’t really have any specific direction, so I ended up taking a bullshit corporate tracking quiz an entrepreneurial DNA personality assessment.
Much Myers-Brigg Type Indicators (INFJ - Advocate) and enneagrams (1w2 - Activitist), any sort of personality is more a self reflection of a particular iteration of you at at a time, and is useful insofar it’s an arbitrarily good place to start reflecting on your tendencies and not much else.
So at this point, I would like to pivot over to the time spent in role play games because if we’re talking archetypes, I might as well use the more fun vocabulary to do so.
Now I have historically gone on the record of not understanding multi-classing, which is a fundamentally funny thing because I distinctively remember one of my favorite D&D 3.5e classes was the Factorum, which is quite literally the most jack-of-all-trades class to ever jack, all, and trade. But I think in my head, specializing in non-specialization is fundamentally different trying to specialize a little into everything. Whether or not that’s functionally true, who knows. But I’ll tell you about myself.
I am straight forward and simple minded. I am thorough when it comes to structures. I am not precise. I am not prone to react quickly. I am methodical. I value being good enough at things. I am the type of person who you give a task that needs to get done. I am of the firm belief that someone could certainly do it better, but sometimes someone better isn’t around, and having a broad base of skills, having utility, being versatile is what the group needs to get going.
It’s why I tend towards tanky classes. The Titan in Destiny (in spirit, less so function since the taunt mechanic isn’t getting adding until October). Martial classes in D&D. Steel Pokemon teams. Things that can endure a variety of circumstances. Things that support. Things that provide a foundation. Post-Final Shape, my Prismatic Titan is self sustaining engine. I don’t get the most kills on the leader board, I don’t top the damage charts. But I am reliable and my party trusts me, and that trust I value more than anything else.
In groups, whether in games or work, I tend to favor flexible positions. I don’t specialize, I adapt. I’m a great second because I fill gaps because people trust me to fill the gaps. And that’s fun for me. To be a simple scaffolding, a catalyst. To let the people who do specialize to do the complex things. I am the organizational equivalent of a mercenary, and I like being that.
And this is a lot of words just to say a strong foundation can enable cool things. But as I am forced to reckon with a looming question of specificity, it’s what comes to mind.