carreer opportunities

[Robert Fraser]

Agreed.

I went into college knowing HTML and a little Java. After a year of college, I knew a lot more Java, a little C, and had started learning D and PHP on my own. After 6 months (so far) of an internship, I know a lot more Java, a whole lot of Perl, some Ruby, the core of SQL, a good deal of Transact-SQL, and some Bash scripting (not really a language, but whatever)... all after being hired as a software developer on a system written entirely (or so they said in the interview) in Java. Turns out, amazingly enough, that one language really doesn't work for everything. Luckily, most (imperative) languages require roughly the same skill set, so learning new ones just gets easier.

John Demme Wrote:

> llee wrote:
> 
> > I'm currently enrolled in Goucher college as a computer science major.
> > I've been programming in D for several years as a hobby, and would like to
> > pursue it as a career. It seems that the market is dominated by C++ and D
> > programmers will have a difficult time finding employment. Does anyone
> > know of any programming firms looking for people possessing skills in D?
> > It's unfortunate since D seems superior to both C, and C++. Hopefully the
> > situation will change in a few years as D increases in popularity. P.S.
> > There are currently a number of certifications that C++ programmers can
> > pursue to demonstrate their knowledge of the language. Are there any
> > available for the D community?
> 
> 
> Don't become a D programmer.  Don't become a C++ programmer.  Don't become a
> C# or a Java programmer.  You really don't want to become a Ruby or Python
> programmer.
> 
> Just be a programmer.  (Or engineer, architect, designer.. whatever)
> 
> Get the basics down, and program as much as you can in as many different
> languages are you possibly can.  The closer you get to guru status, the
> less the language matters.  In the end, they're all just syntactical sugar
> hiding the assembly (which isn't really the lowest level.)  It's better to
> think of languages as tools in the tool box.  D may be one hell of a Swiss
> army knife, but you wouldn't build a machine shop with just a lathe (not a
> very good one at least.)  Plus, If you program for any significant length
> of time, you'll have to learn some new languages.
> 
>   Anyway- programming is about solving a problem, not how you express the   
> solution.
> 
>   IMO, certifications are worthless.
> 
>   Personally, I shy away from gigs for "C++ programmers" and the like,
> because I'm a problem solver, not a C++ monkey.
> 
> 
> That said, it is unfortunate that D doesn't have wider acceptance.  I guess
> companies like to standardize on languages since they think it will make
> code more readable to the general employee coder populace and thus increase
> code reuse and cut development time- too bad that's not the case. 
> 
>   Intelligent programmers are what make for good code.
> 
>   Hawk yourself, not the language.
> 
>   Work with intelligent people, and the development environment will follow.
> 
> 
> Sorry to get preachy, but IMO, people get way too hung up on the language. 
> The biggest thing I look for in a gig (well, after money, that is) is the
> people I'm working with.  I'll program in any language if I can work with
> smart people.
> 
> By the way, the D community is filled with smart people.  D is a great
> language, but I've stuck with it mostly because of the community, not D
> itself.
> 
> -- 
> ~John Demme
> me at teqdruid.com