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Three general pieces of advice: 1. It matters where you are geographically as to which tech stack is hot/viable. 2. It matters what industry you are in/coming

Three general pieces of advice: 1. It matters where you are geographically as to which tech stack is hot/viable. 2. It matters what industry you are in/coming from both for which tech stack is used, and for how much value you can contribute. 3. A web search (indeed, linkedin etc) for dev jobs is likely to tell you a lot more about these two in terms of what is avaiable, what they are looking for and so on than any generic advice you receive here. For instance, if you have a background in trading stocks, and are in NYC, then secure web interfaces might be a big deal. If you are have a background in marketing and are in a big city, then single page apps might be your ticket. If you came from Oil and Gas, in Houston, then who knows.

cactus2093 7y ago
I guess I see your point, but if you're in NYC I really don't think getting into legacy financial institution web portals is good advice. If you want to do trading algorithms or something, sure there are those opportunities (though you may need a background in math or some experience in finance already). If you want to do web development, there are tons tech startups in NY as well as many major tech company hubs (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc) and headquarters (Etsy, Kickstarter, etc). A better way to think of it is probably, if you want to work at a tech startup (which aren't easy to find in every city, so it's contingent on you being near some type of tech hub or doing remote work), then dynamic web languages and js frameworks are good things to learn, like ruby on rails, python/flask, node/express, React on the frontend, etc. Small to medium sized companies can sometimes be easier to get your foot in the door and can be less competitive to get into than FAANG companies for instance, so this can be a good bet. If you want to work at a bigger company (or one that is not traditionally a tech co, perhaps because the area you live doesn't have a lot of tech companies), then stacks like Java/Spring, C++, C#/.Net, etc. can be more useful. Either way, the important thing is to start somewhere. Most companies will let you do interview problems in whatever language you're familiar with, and a lot of companies won't require that you have experience with their exact stack as long as you are a good programmer overall.
- omarhaneef 7y ago
  Just to be clear on what I was trying to say: I didn't mean to use those examples as actually concrete advice of what to pursue. Those were example of how different things can be. The only concrete advice was to boot up indeed.com or whatever engine, and see what is actually out there, how much it pays, what skills they are looking for and so on. I am sure your examples are much closer to the state of affairs than mine were.

cactus2093 7y ago

I guess I see your point, but if you're in NYC I really don't think getting into legacy financial institution web portals is good advice. If you want to do trading algorithms or something, sure there are those opportunities (though you may need a background in math or some experience in finance already). If you want to do web development, there are tons tech startups in NY as well as many major tech company hubs (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc) and headquarters (Etsy, Kickstarter, etc). A better way to think of it is probably, if you want to work at a tech startup (which aren't easy to find in every city, so it's contingent on you being near some type of tech hub or doing remote work), then dynamic web languages and js frameworks are good things to learn, like ruby on rails, python/flask, node/express, React on the frontend, etc. Small to medium sized companies can sometimes be easier to get your foot in the door and can be less competitive to get into than FAANG companies for instance, so this can be a good bet. If you want to work at a bigger company (or one that is not traditionally a tech co, perhaps because the area you live doesn't have a lot of tech companies), then stacks like Java/Spring, C++, C#/.Net, etc. can be more useful. Either way, the important thing is to start somewhere. Most companies will let you do interview problems in whatever language you're familiar with, and a lot of companies won't require that you have experience with their exact stack as long as you are a good programmer overall.

omarhaneef 7y ago
Just to be clear on what I was trying to say: I didn't mean to use those examples as actually concrete advice of what to pursue. Those were example of how different things can be. The only concrete advice was to boot up indeed.com or whatever engine, and see what is actually out there, how much it pays, what skills they are looking for and so on. I am sure your examples are much closer to the state of affairs than mine were.