5 ms·

I think this guys problem is that he knows mostly .net, and that's it. He might be pretty good at it, but shoehorning yourself into one technology stack is not

by ardit33 17y ago

I think this guys problem is that he knows mostly .net, and that's it. He might be pretty good at it, but shoehorning yourself into one technology stack is not good. Anyway, It might be a problem of the location also. I know that in Boston people are having trouble finding jobs too. It seems that in Sillicon Valley there is always demand for really good engineers. If you are really good, you will find something for sure.

jbellis 17y ago
> shoehorning yourself into one technology stack is not good on the contrary, specialization is how you get to be more than a trivially replaceable cog in the machine.
- potatolicious 17y ago
  I beg to differ. Both in the past and now - where I've been on both ends of the recruiting stick for web developer, it is incredibly hard finding someone with enough breadth to tackle what you do. Someone who speaks fluent HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, Perl, Python, MySQL, Oracle and god knows what else is a lot harder to hire than someone who knows C# and Oracle. I'm not talking about trivial "I've heard of it" knowledge, I mean working knowledge. These guys are rare and very hard to replace.
  - dasil003 17y ago
    The other part of this is that by learning more technologies you get better at learning faster, which is a huge asset whenever starting a new project.
  - xsmasher 17y ago
    Of course it's hard. I think being fluent in all of those techs is unlikely. I've seen too many back-end programmers who think they know js and css; they understand most of the syntax, but not the patterns in place, what wheels exist already, what libraries to use, or the quirks in the current implementations. Some don't really know the DOM, others don't really understand cascading. Sure they can make something that looks good in the latest Firefox, but when you open it in IE 6 or 7 you're screwed. Example: Did you know you can't have a JavaScript variable that shares a name with a form element? Do you know why?
  - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
    I mean working knowledge Yeah, but what does Google not know? ;0þ
    - noonespecial 17y ago
      When to use those technologies.
- dasil003 17y ago
  You should specialize in domain knowledge, not a tech stack. That's where the money is. As far as the tech is concerned, you need to balance depth and breadth. I think this is easier to do in the open source world. I shudder to think what my career would have been like if I had got stuck with MS tech early. Being a web developer helps as well, because there are so many layers there that swapping one out at a time never involves too much of a learning curve. If you are well-versed in HTTP, HTML, CSS and Javascript you will still run circles around someone who just knows one language and some framework.
- gvb 17y ago
  That is true, but only as long as the machine continues to run. It is like the genie (Robin Williams) in the animated film Aladdin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_(1992_film) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_(1992_film) Quote from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103639/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103639/quotes -------- Aladdin: You're a prisoner? Genie: It's all part and parcel, the whole "genie gig": [grows to a gigantic size] Genie: Phenomenal cosmic powers! [shrinks down inside the lamp] Genie: Itty-bitty living space! -------- As an irreplaceable cog, you may have "phenomenal" earning power, but you get trapped in a small (employment) space.
mattezell 17y ago
I think that location likely does have a lot to do with it. In Alabama, nearly every job listing is for .Net - with little exception. Even the majority of the web dev positions are MS based, with a rare LAMP posting from time to time.

by ardit33 17y ago

jbellis 17y ago

> shoehorning yourself into one technology stack is not good on the contrary, specialization is how you get to be more than a trivially replaceable cog in the machine.

potatolicious 17y ago
I beg to differ. Both in the past and now - where I've been on both ends of the recruiting stick for web developer, it is incredibly hard finding someone with enough breadth to tackle what you do. Someone who speaks fluent HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, Perl, Python, MySQL, Oracle and god knows what else is a lot harder to hire than someone who knows C# and Oracle. I'm not talking about trivial "I've heard of it" knowledge, I mean working knowledge. These guys are rare and very hard to replace.
- dasil003 17y ago
  The other part of this is that by learning more technologies you get better at learning faster, which is a huge asset whenever starting a new project.
- xsmasher 17y ago
  Of course it's hard. I think being fluent in all of those techs is unlikely. I've seen too many back-end programmers who think they know js and css; they understand most of the syntax, but not the patterns in place, what wheels exist already, what libraries to use, or the quirks in the current implementations. Some don't really know the DOM, others don't really understand cascading. Sure they can make something that looks good in the latest Firefox, but when you open it in IE 6 or 7 you're screwed. Example: Did you know you can't have a JavaScript variable that shares a name with a form element? Do you know why?
- pbhjpbhj 17y ago
  I mean working knowledge Yeah, but what does Google not know? ;0þ
  - noonespecial 17y ago
    When to use those technologies.
dasil003 17y ago
You should specialize in domain knowledge, not a tech stack. That's where the money is. As far as the tech is concerned, you need to balance depth and breadth. I think this is easier to do in the open source world. I shudder to think what my career would have been like if I had got stuck with MS tech early. Being a web developer helps as well, because there are so many layers there that swapping one out at a time never involves too much of a learning curve. If you are well-versed in HTTP, HTML, CSS and Javascript you will still run circles around someone who just knows one language and some framework.
gvb 17y ago
That is true, but only as long as the machine continues to run. It is like the genie (Robin Williams) in the animated film Aladdin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_(1992_film) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_(1992_film) Quote from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103639/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103639/quotes -------- Aladdin: You're a prisoner? Genie: It's all part and parcel, the whole "genie gig": [grows to a gigantic size] Genie: Phenomenal cosmic powers! [shrinks down inside the lamp] Genie: Itty-bitty living space! -------- As an irreplaceable cog, you may have "phenomenal" earning power, but you get trapped in a small (employment) space.

mattezell 17y ago

I think that location likely does have a lot to do with it. In Alabama, nearly every job listing is for .Net - with little exception. Even the majority of the web dev positions are MS based, with a rare LAMP posting from time to time.