I dealt with it by specializing on the C#-Windows platform. Allows me to hold 5x the language trivia I would able to hold if I worked on 5 different languages

I dealt with it by specializing on the C#-Windows platform. Allows me to hold 5x the language trivia I would able to hold if I worked on 5 different languages and platforms :P. It's easier in the .NET world because a lot of shops for better or worse go pure Microsoft so there is a standard set of technologies and accompanying trivia you can learn. Unfortunately you won't get to work with best of breed products, but the upside is you'll get to familiarize yourself with enough technologies that you can get up and running fairly quickly. Language : C# Database : Sql Server ORM : Entity Framework IDE : Visual Studio + Resharper Client Side UI : WPF Web Server : IIS Web : Asp.net MVC/Classic etc... Client OS : Windows Server OS : Windows Development OS : Windows Cloud : Azure Logging : NLog or Log4Net Code Generation : T4 Source Control : TFS Build Server : TFS Unit Testing : MSTest Build language : MSBuild Deployment : Wix or ClickOnce Mocking Framework : Moq or Fakes etc... (This list is ignoring many of the different technologies that have been discarded by Microsoft such as winforms, COM, VB6, etc..)