"Jack of all trades, master of none." Well, maybe not master of none. I think I'm the master of one, maybe two at most. Still, I do many things to some varying degree of 'acceptable.'

At work, that, coupled with a "I want to help" attitude is that I become both indispensable and randomized.

Indispensable is okay. My last job I burrowed myself so deeply into the infrastructure of the company that they would have had to close down the whole campus in which I worked (5 buildings, appx 1400 coworkers) to get rid of my position.

Randomized isn't. I've become one of the "go ask SoAndSo" people. I get strange requests about my product from many teammates and some people who are barely related to our team.

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Today, a company VP extolled the virtue of software test as a discipline. When one of the Q&Aers challenged her on this, about the perception that SQA is considered the "stepchild" in the development process, she countered that it should be like a family business, such as a store. It doesn't matter who is supposed to be the one to sweep the floor, if a customer drops something, whomever is closest should take care of it.

After all, the goal is to take care of the customer, right? To make us all look good.

That's fine and dandy, but sometimes I feel like I'm the one that gets called to help. I may be responsible for, say, stocking shelves, but I'm called to cover the cash register, or to answer the phone, or to design the display, or to paint over the plaster...

And, at the end of the day, I look at my shelves and wonder why they're bare. Fortunately, no one seems to think I'm slacking, but I would like to walk out of my family b usiness knowing that I've fulfilled my first duty.