carreer opportunities

[Sean Kelly]

John Demme wrote:
> 
>   IMO, certifications are worthless.

In programming, I'd agree.  But some other areas, perhaps not.  Getting 
a Cisco certification can double the salary of a net admin, for example.

>   Personally, I shy away from gigs for "C++ programmers" and the like,
> because I'm a problem solver, not a C++ monkey.

The problem is that job requirements are often very specific these days, 
and the front-line recruiters often don't know anything about the jobs 
they're recruiting for.  Telling them "I'm a problem solver" implies "I 
don't know anything about keywords X, Y, or Z."  If the front-line 
person is a headhunter or a HR rep for a large company, that can mean 
never hearing about a job in the first place, or simply not getting an 
interview if you do.  It's really ridiculous how hiring practices work 
these days, but in general, it pays to put every acronym, language, etc, 
that you know on your resume and can help to specifically target the 
ones you enjoy working with during your job search.  For example, I've 
had people ask what my "specialty" is before, and an evasive answer can 
be enough to end the conversation.

I'll admit what confuses me most about the way things work now is 
non-compete agreements vs. the desire for specialists.  Employers 
typically want to hire someone with very specific, focused, and current 
experience in a particular area, which is inherently incompatible with 
non-compete agreements (at least in theory).  Fortunately, they aren't 
generally enforcible.

> 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. 

I think D will break into the market through small shops, who have a 
smaller associated cost for adopting a new language or technology. 
Large companies often use a really horrid selection of tools and such, 
simply because they've been around long enough that it's easy to hire 
people that know the thing, infrastructure is built internally to 
support it, solid service contracts may exist for the associated 
products, etc.

> 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.

In light of what I said above, if you don't want to get pigeonholed as a 
Visual Basic programmer (for example), then consider avoiding jobs using 
Visual Basic.  That said, the people are the deciding factor for any 
job.  If you don't get along with them, look elsewhere.


Sean