Founder of Generalist World. I build things that did not exist before: a 150,000-person global network, a 1,000-person paid community, events that volunteers in 40+ countries run, and, for funsies, a job board for weird jobs.
Occasionally available for contract gigs with orgs doing great work, and for talks on the future of work.
150,000+ network*1,000 paid membersvolunteers in 40+ countriesLives in a tiny home
Tamati / about / 1
I was never going to pick one thing.
For about three decades I was fairly sure that was a flaw I would eventually fix.
I grew up believing I was supposed to become an expert at xxxxxxxxxx something. ONE thing. Studied and practised and polished until it fit on a business card and people nodded politely when I said it at parties. Being a jack of all trades was the warning. A no-no. Something you grow out of, like a fringe.
Which is where I would like to make a correction: jack of all trades, master of nonemaster of quite a lot, actually.
So I tried. I squeezed myself into job titles that nearly fit, in a few different countries, and every single time I got restless and curious and started quietly doing the bits of everyone else's job that nobody had asked me to do. I was the person rewriting the onboarding doc nobody read. I was the person in the meeting going "sorry, but why?" The titles never fit. For years I assumed the problem was me.
It was not me.
mid-sentence, as usual
It took me an embarrassingly long time to notice the obvious thing. The people who untangle the messy, ambiguous, nobody-owns-this problems are almost never the specialists. They are the ones holding five half-related things in their head at once, spotting where they join up. Usually in the shower, or in my case, on a longgg afternoon walk (if ya know, ya know).
A generalist isn't someone who couldn't choose. It's someone whose work happens in the gaps between everybody else's job description.
Three weeks after the thought for Generalist World first turned up, I quit my full-time job. After careful consideration.On a Tuesday. No savings worth mentioning. No plan B. No co-founder to talk me out of it. You get maybe one or two of these in a whole career, and every bone in my body was going: THIS IS IT.
Reader, this was terrifying.
Three years on, that thought is a community, a newsletter, a podcast, a jobs board and a public holiday I made up.
150k+global network
1,000paid members
40+countries
500+events
51,890quizzes taken
1holiday invented
0niches picked
What I actually do all day: run the community, write, host, hunt down gloriously strange jobs, and talk to a frankly unreasonable number of generalists about what they are actually good at. Part editor, part host, part matchmaker, part woman replying to DMs at 11pm. Which is the point, really. Nobody was ever going to hand me this job description, so I went away and typed it myself.
I'm from New Zealand. These days I live in a tiny home, which is exactly as small and as good as it sounds. It is nestled in twelve acres of woodland in Scotland, right next to an organic walled garden where I grow a lot of my own food.
I create, speak, write, read, advise, walk a lot, and LOVE fermenting the veg I grow. I built a whole job out of the one trait I used to apologise for, which still feels a bit like getting away with something.
home, these days
Looking for a speaker?
People usually book me when they want to inspire their audience. I shoot straight from the hip: telling my story and sharing the lessons in a transparent, funny, momentum-building way.
P.S. If you have read this far you are almost certainly a generalist. Sorry. There is no cure.
Occasional contract work, for orgs doing great work on something that does not have a shape yet.
Alongside running Generalist World I take on the occasional contract gig with organisations doing work I actually care about. The work I am best at is the work nobody has written a job description for: the new programme, the community that needs to exist, the operation that has outgrown its spreadsheet, the thing everyone agrees matters and nobody owns.
I am a generalist in the literal, useful sense. I can do the thinking and then go and build the thing, which in practice means you get one person instead of a strategist, a contractor and a project manager.
What I am best at, though, is making people care. I spent three years turning an idea into a movement by telling the story straight and treating people like humans, and that part travels: taking a cause that matters and getting an audience, a team or a whole network to feel it and then act on it.
Generalist World, from zeroA 1,000-person paid community inside a global network of over 150,000, built with no investors and no co-founder. I do the strategy, the writing, the partnerships, the hiring, the numbers, and a great deal of the admin.
A global events programme500+ events, run by volunteers in more than 40 countries. I recruit them, support them, and keep the whole thing feeling like one thing rather than forty.
A jobs board that largely runs itselfProgrammatic pages, automated publishing and expiry, every single role checked by a human first. Built to surface work for people who do not match the usual filters.
A product that spread on its ownThe generalist archetype quiz has been taken by 51,890 people. No ad spend behind it.
A weekly newsletter and a podcastWritten, edited and hosted by me, every week, for three years.
An invented public holidayInternational Generalist Day now runs in multiple cities. Making something up and then making it real turns out to be a transferable skill.
Hosting at scaleMC and moderator for full-day programmes, including Global House at SXSW London and events with WeWork, in front of hundreds of people.
I work through storyStrategy documents do not move people. Stories do. My sweet spot is getting a room, a team or a whole network to actually care about something, and then to go and do something about it.
I build communities that outlast meNot an audience and not a mailing list. People who turn up for each other when I am nowhere near the room, in more than 40 countries, run by volunteers who asked if they could.
I like ambiguity"We think there is something here, go and find out" is the brief I do best. I do not need the problem pre-chewed.
I am comfortable being the only person on itI have been the only person on it for three years.
I think in decadesWhich makes me slow to panic, and mildly annoying in planning meetings.
I will tell you when something is not workingUsually slightly before you want to hear it.
Ask me about the time I deleted my own niche. It went well.
"Milly Tamati is pure energy, the kind that fills a room and somehow gives you more of it too. She's sharp, funny and wonderfully human in how she connects with people. If you get the chance to work with her, take it."
Mie Oestergaard, Global DEI Lead, Skyscanner
"In just one hour, she helped us cut through the noise and get to the heart of our stories. Her prompts were simple but powerful, and the tangible next steps made it feel exciting instead of overwhelming."
Occasionally available for contract gigs with orgs doing great work, and for talks on the future of work. A small number at a time, so the ones I say yes to get all of me.
P.S. If you are reading this because I applied for something: yes, I made the website. Yes, it is a typewriter. I could not help myself, and that is roughly what hiring me is like.
Page 2 of 7One person, not a department
Tamati / speaking / 3
Book Milly to speak
Talks about generalists, squiggly careers, and why your most useful people keep leaving.
I talk to conferences, leadership teams and employee networks about what happens when work is built only for specialists, and what changes when it isn't. It all comes from three years of running a network of over 150,000 people, and several hundred very honest conversations about how careers actually go, rather than the tidy version everyone puts on LinkedIn.
The room is usually some mix of people and talent leaders, exec teams worrying about skills and retention, and the generalists themselves, who mostly need better words and someone to tell them they are not broken. I am practical, fairly funny, and I will not stand there reading you a slide.
I do bring slides. I just do not read them at you.
"Forget the career ladder! Lean into your squiggly career journey and build a life worth living", at The Slowdown Summit. Watch it on YouTube if you would rather.
Better words for what they doMost generalists cannot describe their own value out loud. They leave with language they can use in a performance review, an interview, or an argument with their own brain at 2am.
PermissionSomebody at the front saying the quiet thing: you are not unfocused, you are not behind, and the job you want probably does not have a name yet.
One thing to change on MondayFor the leaders in the room, usually something in how they hire, level or write job descriptions. I am deliberately specific about this. Vague talks are a waste of everyone's afternoon.
A surprising amount of laughingFor a session that is, technically, about organisational design.
How I built a movement of 100,000 from an island of 191The whole story: the idea, the three weeks, the island, and everything I got wrong afterwards. For founders, marketers and anyone building a thing from nothing.
How organisations can unlock different types of brillianceWhy the dot-joiners solve your ugliest problems, and why most org charts quietly punish them for it. For leadership and people teams.
Why generalist skills are the future, and how to invest in them nowWhat hiring, levelling and progression look like once you stop pretending everyone is on one track. Works very well as a workshop.
How to build a defensible personal brand that pays dividendsFor the individuals in the room. How to describe a squiggly career out loud without apologising halfway through the sentence. Practical, with exercises.
Why me and not one of the other future-of-work people
There are a lot of us on this circuit. Most have never actually run the thing they are describing. I built a global network of 150,000 generalists from a kitchen table with no investors and no plan B, and I speak to those people every single day.
So you don't get a consultancy chart from 2019. You get what a few hundred generalists told me this month, what is really happening inside their hiring processes, and the parts nobody puts in the case study.
I have made an HR conference laugh out loud about job architecture. I am choosing to take that as a win.
What you get from me
A call beforehand, so the talk is built for your actual room. Me, arriving early. Me, staying for the drinks. Slides you can share afterwards if you want them. I will not send a junior, because there is no junior.
Formats
Keynote (30 to 45 minutes), fireside, half-day workshop, panel, or hosting and MC for the whole day. The MC work is some of my favourite: I will learn your speakers' names, join the dots between sessions, and keep the energy up at 4pm when it usually sags. In person worldwide, or remotely from the tiny home. Happy to get on a 5am flight. Every talk gets built around your actual room on a call first, which I don't charge for.
"At Global House @ SXSW London, Milly didn't just host, she held the room. She reads a room fast. She connects speakers to each other, to the audience, and to the moment. Her ability to balance prep with presence is rare."
Dec McLaughlin, Founding Partner, Foras Ventures
"Milly was the host for the entire day, leading and moderating sessions with investors, partners and founders in front of hundreds of people. She did an amazing job hosting, with clarity, confidence and professionalism."
Elinor Honigstein, Global Marketing Events, WeWork
"Milly is a brilliant MC. She brings a warm presence with a wonderful twinkle in her eyes that welcomes everyone and puts them at their ease. She creates a brilliant vibe that sets the tone for positivity, energy, and connection."
Ruth Morgan, Co-Director and Professor, UCL
"In just one hour, she helped us cut through the noise and get to the heart of our personal brand stories. Her prompts were simple but powerful, and the tangible next steps made the idea of building a brand feel exciting instead of overwhelming."
Katie Spieker, Event Organiser, Backdoor
"Milly's talk at Community Rebellion was a breath of fresh air. She brought a thoughtful, honest perspective on what it's really like to be a founder and a community builder. Her story deeply resonated with our audience."
Founder and CEO, Talkbase
"I appreciated Milly's warm, down to earth energy, practical exercises, and encouragement to embrace my unique voice, and figure out how to promote myself and my projects as a generalist."
Dave Kang, workshop attendee
For organisers
Short bioMilly Tamati is the founder of Generalist World, a global network of over 150,000 people with squiggly careers.
AV and travel[ your requirements and travel notes ]
What I needA microphone and a room. Water is a bonus. I will find my own way there.
Tell me about your event
Send me the date, who's in the room, and what you'd love them walking out thinking.
P.S. If the budget is tight and the audience is right, say so anyway. We will work something out.
Page 3 of 7Will travel · will talk too much
Tamati / generalist world / 4
Generalist World
A home for the people who were told to specialise and quietly refused.
Generalist World is a global community for people with squiggly, multi-threaded careers. Members are the operators, founders, chiefs of staff, programme leads and quiet fixers who hold organisations together and have never once had a tidy word for it.
We think generalist skillsets are a cornerstone of the future of work, and that work can be the thing that solves the world's thorniest, most ambiguous problems. The goal, said plainly: a workforce of one million happy, thriving generalists.
The communityA thousand paying members inside a network of 150,000, with meetups run by volunteers in more than 40 countries. The meetups are the best bit.
The archetype quizSix archetypes: Connector, Builder, Operator, Strategist, Systems Thinker, Translator. Over fifty thousand people have taken it, mostly because they wanted better words for what they are worth.
The jobs boardHand-checked roles that genuinely want a generalist. Especially the gloriously weird ones.
International Generalist DayWe invented a holiday. It's real now. You can't stop us.
We care about being genuine over polished, community over broadcast, and sincere without ever being too serious about ourselves. We make decisions on a decade-long view, which is an irritating way to run a business and worth it every single time.
P.S. There is parity and solidarity pricing if the full price is not doable, and nobody will ask you to prove anything.
Page 4 of 7One million generalists, eventually
Tamati / newsletter / 5
The newsletter
Weekly, for people with too many interests to pick one.
I write for generalists about careers, work, and the strange business of being good at several things at once. You will not get growth hacks or a five-step framework for becoming a thought leader, because I don't have either. Mostly it's honest notes from running a community and watching a lot of people change their minds about what they are worth. Occasionally a rant.
The rants do the best numbers, which tells you something.
P.S. I write it myself, every week, usually later than planned.
Page 5 of 7Written by hand · sent by robot
Tamati / jobs / 6
Weird jobs, weekly
Roles that want a whole person, not a keyword match.
Every job gets hand-checked and tagged by archetype, region and the skills it actually needs. Each one stays live for fourteen days, then it goes to the vault. The rule I give myself: if it's a job only a generalist could do well, it belongs here.
Expect chiefs of staff, founding operators, programme leads at odd little institutions, and the occasional role at a museum, a farm, a maritime charity or a space company. Yes, a space company.
I check every single one by hand. It takes hours. I like it.
P.S. Spot a dead link? Tell me. I will fix it and think about you fondly.
Page 6 of 7Checked by hand · fourteen days each
Tamati / contact / 7
Come and find me
Contract work, speaking, sponsorship, and anything genuinely strange.
For contract work, send me the problem rather than the job title; I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person. For speaking, the useful things are the date, who is in the room, the format, and what you'd like people walking out thinking. I read everything that comes in, from a tiny home with patchy signal.
P.S. When you reach out, please add some context. I get a lot of messages these days and sadly do not have the capacity to reply to all of them individually.
Page 7 of 7Generalist World Ltd · Scotland
Retrieved from the bin
__________________________________
A single sheet, crumpled. Typed at the top: MY NICHE. Nothing underneath it.
Abandoned three weeks after I had a better idea. No lasting damage appears to have been done.
