There's a broad line with "C++/Java". You can use C++ as a safer C, and yes, that's generally unpleasant. But if you're leveraging STL, Boost, and some GC lik

There's a broad line with "C++/Java". You can use C++ as a safer C, and yes, that's generally unpleasant. But if you're leveraging STL, Boost, and some GC like Boehm, among other extensions, it's a great deal better. Same with Java -- if you're leveraging Java 5/6 functionality, using Groovy for scripting, etc., you're going to be stretching your brain with something other than memory management. Ask them how they use the languages, and you might find they wrote their own compilers for DSLs or other things you'll enjoy working on. All that said, the market is ripe right now, and it's a good time to be a prima donna about what you'll work on.