Here's .02 in Mexican currency: A few years ago, when I was coming up as an aspiring programmer, the way to end employment woes was to become multi-talented in a variety of languages and technologies. Back in 1998, if you knew HTML, CF or ASP, javascript, Photoshop, and Access, you were really a hot commodity. Things have changed and many people have these skills now, but the principle remains the same: the more you can do, the better your chances of being employed.
At my last job, I started reading up on SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. While most of what I actually do is program Cold Fusion, I was hired (and won a very, very large raise) because I have a working knowledge of these standards and can explain how Web services work in general. Also, I spent a lot of time keeping current with Flash, since it is always in demand somewhere. I was really surprised when I applied to a couple of ad agencies and found myself interviewing for senior designer positions based on my knowledge of Flash (especially considering I applied for programmer positions). Java, C++, Ruby, Perl, Python etc. are good to know as well (if for no other reason than they let you use SOAP, UDDI, and WSDL), but there are actually drawbacks to putting a lot of time into learning them. There is ALWAYS someone who knows more, and while it is easy to follow the tutorials and become confident working with any of these languages, it is extremely hard to become great with them. Java itself is a huge collection of libraries that you may never have a true in-depth understanding of all of it. Just learn enough to do what you want to do, and worry about the rest when you need it. For the CF developer searching to ease employment anxiety, I say: learn complimentary skills that make you stand out, and find a way to make them useful together. Build something with them if you can. Just having knowledge in other areas is not enough, because someone else always knows more. Knowing Java is good, but having built a socket server that pulls data from a larger UDDI interface is excellent. Understanding Flash Actionscript is cool, but having built a Flash application that is fully intergrated with Oracle and can interact with COM objects via calls to CF or some other Web service is superior. Oh, yeah, and use your head and make sure you know what it is you want to do. If your real desire is to build forms for brochureware sites that put data in a database, you do not need to know java and it will make you miserable trying to learn it. Compliment your CF with Photoshop or something else useful. M -----Original Message----- From: Philip Arnold - ASP [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 6:22 AM To: CF-Community Subject: RE: When will CF Jobs be on the Rise? or ? This kind of post always makes me laugh - although it's usually a "Learn ASP" one... > When will CF Jobs be on the Rise? or should we start learning > JSP or VB or C++ or what else? Considering that ALL computer jobs are down at the moment, you can either ride it out and stay in your current position, or learn new languages and try to get a more "secure" job with a "more widely used" language - the problem with the other languages is that you get into a bigger pond, but there are more and bigger fish already there, so are your chances improved, or are you just thinning out the CF pond? Hang on, yeah, go learn other languages, means more CF jobs for the rest of us <g> > Should we give up and learn .NET? (Yikes) Learn as much as you can - always! It's always better to know more than enough than not enough... Philip Arnold Technical Director Certified ColdFusion Developer ASP Multimedia Limited T: +44 (0)20 8680 1133 F: +44 (0)20 8686 7911 An ISO9001 registered company. ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. ********************************************************************** ______________________________________________________________________ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
