Recently I was scribing a panel discussion at UCLA Medical School and afterwards an attendee came up to me and said, "Wow, did you go to medical school?" And I said, "No, I'm actually a liberal arts major." The only science I had in college was physics for the non-science major and earth science for the non-science major. But as a graphic recorder, I've developed the skill to be able to listen to complex subjects and pull out the most important information and create a visual hierarchy on the fly.
Now, if I know I'm attending a content-heavy event, I'll peruse their website learn a little bit more before I walk in the room. But often I don't receive what the speakers are really going to be talking about until the event. This is where 20 years as a copywriter has been beneficial, helping me develop the skill of being able to dive into a lot of information and pull out the most important and draw out the relationships between concepts.
While some graphic recorders are specialists in tech, education, or environment, I am a generalist. One week I might be helping urban planners create their 10-year plan, and then the next week help creators of video games storyboard their upcoming release.
I end up learning a little about a lot. And I’m pretty good at Trivial Pursuit.