carreer opportunities

[John Demme]

Sean Kelly wrote:

> 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.

I'm not familiar with the Cisco certification, and I can't comment on pay
concerning certs, but what I can say is that I've known a few A+ and MCSEs
not worth their salt- so clearly the cert (in those cases) didn't mean
much.

> 
>>   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.

Yeah- it's unfortunate.  I generally put the acronyms and buzzwords in my
resume as well, for those reasons.  It's not that I refuse to go out for
jobs like that, they just get marked down in my book.  Same goes for jobs
where I gotta go through HR or a headhunter.  I've applied for them, but
not with the same vigor.  I'd much rather work for a small company where
the guy doing the hiring knows that HR and headhunters aren't much better
than a decent grep!  (Read: the guy wants smarts, not buzzwords)... In my
(albeight limited experience) these are the environments where ya get the
most exposure to experience.

Just my preference, by the way!  I know many, many people who like working
for large companies.  I'm not a fan, but maybe that's just because I'm not
much of a social animal!

> 
> 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.

It's not just the non-compete agreements. I've been told that a lot of the
IP agreements aren't enforceable, either.  Ya know the ones that basically
claim ownership of your soul?  I hate those things!

> 
>> 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.

I agree.  I guess that this is the answer to the original post, then!  If
you wanna program in D professionally, your best shot is to go for a small
shop and prove it's a good tool!

> 
>> 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.

Speaking of VB, one of my oldest clients (and now a good friend of mine) is
a VB guy.  He never made the jump to C and skipped right on over to VB. 
Needless to say, I rag on him all the time for it.  One of these days I'll
get him to learn D!

-- 
~John Demme
me at teqdruid.com
http://www.teqdruid.com/