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Everyone wants a T-shaped worker

The latest demand in the jobs market is a worker with the description of a shirt: organisations are looking for 'T-shaped' workers.

27 Feb 2015

Madeleine Dore

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Visual Arts

Art by Aaskash Nihalani

T-shaped is a metaphor to describe workers with both depth and breadth in their skills: competent in a wide range of related fields as well as expert in a particular area.

The term was popularised by Tim Brown, CEO of the innovation and design firm IDEO, who describes T-shaped people as having two kinds of characteristics that complement each other.

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Madeleine Dore

About the Author

Madeleine Dore is a freelance writer and founder of Extraordinary Routines, an interview project exploring the intersection between creativity and imperfection. She is the previous Deputy Editor at ArtsHub. Follow her on Twitter at @RoutineCurator