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It's too bad to hear that, and a surprise to me... always thinking that it was an applicants market. Also, python didn't strike me as a hard-to-sell language.

potatolicious 11y ago
It's absolutely an applicant's market... if your profile fits within an extremely narrow window of what companies are interested in. The tech industry is largely a group of companies competing to outbid each other to hire a small pool of "credentialed elite" developers for lots of money, and everyone else.
vinceguidry 11y ago
Python's weird in the ecosystem of languages. It's way more of a hobbyist language than it lets on. Since, as Patrick writes, most dev jobs are for line-of-business apps, and Python occupies a very very small niche in that world, very few devs can specialize in Python and hope to easily find a job if they present themselves as a Python specialist. Data science might change things, but it's still a very new field. If you're looking for a dev job, you should learn Ruby unless you have an irrational disdain for it. It's close enough to Python to be a fairly easy switch, but it will raise your position considerably in the job market. But really, you should take Patrick's advice and not present yourself as an X developer. I do because I want to work primarily with Ruby and Rails, but when I was starting out, I presented myself as a competent engineer that could get up to speed effectively with any framework. I got a .NET job that way, having no former experience in the stack. Got fired in three weeks, but I still got paid. Now I do Ruby exclusively, and have no trouble finding opps.
- switch007 11y ago
  I'm not sure about the UK. Python, according to these job-regex-match statistics, seems more in demand: itjobswatch.co.uk: number of jobs in the past 3 months citing ruby: 2,766, python: 6,013. Rank table: http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/IT-Job-Market/UK/Programming-Languages http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/IT-Job-Market/UK/Programming-La... GB section on this page put Ruby mentions at 3% and Python 6% https://gooroo.io/GoorooTHINK/Article/16300/Programming-languages--salaries-and-demand-May-2015/18672 https://gooroo.io/GoorooTHINK/Article/16300/Programming-lang... EDIT: indeed.com, ruby vs python: http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/ruby%2C+python.html http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/ruby%2C+python.html Does anyone know where else to get data (not anecdotes)?
  - tetraodonpuffer 11y ago
    what does "citing" here mean? in my experience if a job has, say, ruby, odds are it's a ruby job, if it has python often it's a job on something completely different where at the bottom they put "familiarity with scripting (python, perl) is an asset"
- morgante 11y ago
  If you're actually working as a developer, you really shouldn't be a "specialist" in any language. That's like a carpenter who can only work with one kind of drill.
  - vinceguidry 11y ago
    Depends on what kind of career you want and what you're hoping to get out of it. For me, a career is a tool I use to enable my life. Regularizing it as much as possible is worth it for me. Languages don't just disappear. People still make fine livings programming Fortran. If I'm going to keep programming for 20+ years, I'd be happy to be one of those guys. I'd rather move into business, but if for some reason that never happens, being a specialist in a deep niche holds a deep appeal for me.
pmiller2 11y ago
I've applied cold for jobs where every one of the requirements matched a point on my resume and didn't get so much as an acknowledgement.

potatolicious 11y ago

It's absolutely an applicant's market... if your profile fits within an extremely narrow window of what companies are interested in. The tech industry is largely a group of companies competing to outbid each other to hire a small pool of "credentialed elite" developers for lots of money, and everyone else.

vinceguidry 11y ago

Python's weird in the ecosystem of languages. It's way more of a hobbyist language than it lets on. Since, as Patrick writes, most dev jobs are for line-of-business apps, and Python occupies a very very small niche in that world, very few devs can specialize in Python and hope to easily find a job if they present themselves as a Python specialist. Data science might change things, but it's still a very new field. If you're looking for a dev job, you should learn Ruby unless you have an irrational disdain for it. It's close enough to Python to be a fairly easy switch, but it will raise your position considerably in the job market. But really, you should take Patrick's advice and not present yourself as an X developer. I do because I want to work primarily with Ruby and Rails, but when I was starting out, I presented myself as a competent engineer that could get up to speed effectively with any framework. I got a .NET job that way, having no former experience in the stack. Got fired in three weeks, but I still got paid. Now I do Ruby exclusively, and have no trouble finding opps.

switch007 11y ago
I'm not sure about the UK. Python, according to these job-regex-match statistics, seems more in demand: itjobswatch.co.uk: number of jobs in the past 3 months citing ruby: 2,766, python: 6,013. Rank table: http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/IT-Job-Market/UK/Programming-Languages http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/IT-Job-Market/UK/Programming-La... GB section on this page put Ruby mentions at 3% and Python 6% https://gooroo.io/GoorooTHINK/Article/16300/Programming-languages--salaries-and-demand-May-2015/18672 https://gooroo.io/GoorooTHINK/Article/16300/Programming-lang... EDIT: indeed.com, ruby vs python: http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/ruby%2C+python.html http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/ruby%2C+python.html Does anyone know where else to get data (not anecdotes)?
- tetraodonpuffer 11y ago
  what does "citing" here mean? in my experience if a job has, say, ruby, odds are it's a ruby job, if it has python often it's a job on something completely different where at the bottom they put "familiarity with scripting (python, perl) is an asset"
morgante 11y ago
If you're actually working as a developer, you really shouldn't be a "specialist" in any language. That's like a carpenter who can only work with one kind of drill.
- vinceguidry 11y ago
  Depends on what kind of career you want and what you're hoping to get out of it. For me, a career is a tool I use to enable my life. Regularizing it as much as possible is worth it for me. Languages don't just disappear. People still make fine livings programming Fortran. If I'm going to keep programming for 20+ years, I'd be happy to be one of those guys. I'd rather move into business, but if for some reason that never happens, being a specialist in a deep niche holds a deep appeal for me.

pmiller2 11y ago

I've applied cold for jobs where every one of the requirements matched a point on my resume and didn't get so much as an acknowledgement.