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The fact that I can do something does not mean that I would like to do it. Learning Fortran from scratch in 2015 might be bad career decision for a new grad.

by nazgob 11y ago

USNetizen 11y ago
Not necessarily. Even just a rudimentary familiarity with it, or another language like COBOL, they could find a six-figure gig right out of school in several markets. They don't need to specialize in it, just knowing enough to get by will make them coveted by hundreds of defense and government contractors, for example.
- jlarocco 11y ago
  That seems unlikely. I can easily imagine guys with 40 years experience writing Fortran or Cobol getting six figures. Or even just 10 years. But I'd have to see it to believe it for a straight out of college kid and rudimentary familiarity with the language.
Kurtz79 11y ago
I cannot really see any negative in learning a new language, something that any programmer should feel comfortable with and look forward too. It's not like learning FORTRAN (or C, or Pascal, or COBOL) will make someone unable to program in other more markeatable languages.
- pauldix 11y ago
  The negative is that time is a finite and limited resource. If a junior person spends their time learning about Fortran or some other esoteric thing while their peers learn skills or languages that are in demand, the junior person that learned Fortran will be at a disadvantage. Of course, if you're doing it just for fun, then I'd say there's no negative. But from a career perspective, you'd be better off learning more relevant skills.
- jkyle 11y ago
  For someone starting out, there's such a thing as opportunity loss. What language would that person had learned if they had not spent that time learning Fortran? Would that language had been more marketable in their next job? Further, what you used your last job matters. Particularly if that job is the _only_ real job since you got out of school. If you just learned Fortran for fun or for a job in a long list of jobs and your github account is littered with good work in multiple languages, Fortran can indicate flexibility, diversity, and a a broad skill set. If all I see is one job with Fortran for 2 or 3 years after school I might hesitate to hire you for a <insert language here> job at anything but entry level. edit Just a note, I think Fortran is a fine language and anyone whose done a decent amount of linear algebra work knows what a big role Fortran plays in analytics. My main point is that you should care about what your first job(s) are coming out of school because they can shape what the next jobs are going to be. So make sure it's something you want to be doing.
- untog 11y ago
  It's a waste of time. Why learn FORTRAN when you can take a job learning a more widely used language?
gherkin0 11y ago
> Learning Fortran from scratch in 2015 might be bad career decision for a new grad. Isn't it still commonly used for scientific computing? So, maybe it would enable you to work on other kinds of neat stuff than the latest javascript UI framework.
- semi-extrinsic 11y ago
  It is still very common in scientific computing, to the point that some of the best researchers in the field teach online classes using it: https://www.coursera.org/course/scicomp https://www.coursera.org/course/scicomp

The fact that I can do something does not mean that I would like to do it. Learning Fortran from scratch in 2015 might be bad career decision for a new grad.

by nazgob 11y ago

The fact that I can do something does not mean that I would like to do it. Learning Fortran from scratch in 2015 might be bad career decision for a new grad.

USNetizen 11y ago

Not necessarily. Even just a rudimentary familiarity with it, or another language like COBOL, they could find a six-figure gig right out of school in several markets. They don't need to specialize in it, just knowing enough to get by will make them coveted by hundreds of defense and government contractors, for example.

jlarocco 11y ago
That seems unlikely. I can easily imagine guys with 40 years experience writing Fortran or Cobol getting six figures. Or even just 10 years. But I'd have to see it to believe it for a straight out of college kid and rudimentary familiarity with the language.

Kurtz79 11y ago

I cannot really see any negative in learning a new language, something that any programmer should feel comfortable with and look forward too. It's not like learning FORTRAN (or C, or Pascal, or COBOL) will make someone unable to program in other more markeatable languages.

pauldix 11y ago
The negative is that time is a finite and limited resource. If a junior person spends their time learning about Fortran or some other esoteric thing while their peers learn skills or languages that are in demand, the junior person that learned Fortran will be at a disadvantage. Of course, if you're doing it just for fun, then I'd say there's no negative. But from a career perspective, you'd be better off learning more relevant skills.
jkyle 11y ago
For someone starting out, there's such a thing as opportunity loss. What language would that person had learned if they had not spent that time learning Fortran? Would that language had been more marketable in their next job? Further, what you used your last job matters. Particularly if that job is the _only_ real job since you got out of school. If you just learned Fortran for fun or for a job in a long list of jobs and your github account is littered with good work in multiple languages, Fortran can indicate flexibility, diversity, and a a broad skill set. If all I see is one job with Fortran for 2 or 3 years after school I might hesitate to hire you for a <insert language here> job at anything but entry level. edit Just a note, I think Fortran is a fine language and anyone whose done a decent amount of linear algebra work knows what a big role Fortran plays in analytics. My main point is that you should care about what your first job(s) are coming out of school because they can shape what the next jobs are going to be. So make sure it's something you want to be doing.
untog 11y ago
It's a waste of time. Why learn FORTRAN when you can take a job learning a more widely used language?

gherkin0 11y ago

> Learning Fortran from scratch in 2015 might be bad career decision for a new grad. Isn't it still commonly used for scientific computing? So, maybe it would enable you to work on other kinds of neat stuff than the latest javascript UI framework.

semi-extrinsic 11y ago
It is still very common in scientific computing, to the point that some of the best researchers in the field teach online classes using it: https://www.coursera.org/course/scicomp https://www.coursera.org/course/scicomp