I'm not OP, but I think I can address your concerns a bit: In the former case, I think OP's point was that being exceptionally familiar with a given language o

I'm not OP, but I think I can address your concerns a bit: In the former case, I think OP's point was that being exceptionally familiar with a given language or technology is not what ultimately makes a programmer exceptionally good: that factor is platform-independent, so to speak. Being one of the 10 programmers in the world most familiar with X might be a neat thing to put on your resume (if you could prove it) but probably isn't as important to getting your job done well as the elements of your skills which apply regardless of language. In the latter case, yes, cost centers are valuable, otherwise they wouldn't exist at all, but they're not the company's primary business, and if something needs to be cut, they'll consider ancillary stuff like this first. This is really just a repeat of the age-old advice to work at a company whose primary business is whatever it is you want to do, as that will usually get you the best treatment.