I need to upgrade my skills
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I would suggest you to leave your comfort zone and step away from the Microsoft backyard... There is so much more out there. Pick one! For server side programming Golang, Python and C++ For Web/Client: NodeJS For Client desktop For example: C++/Qt For Client, apps: Kotlin
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
IMHO jumping on C++ with just VB/C# background will be painful and not verry productive. This is not some new language, it's a different mindset. Unless you are in your early 20, I wouldn't recommend that.
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I can not offer assistance re/ your concern but may I please inquire as you are a Microsoft employee would you happen to know the number of engineers assigned to the development of Visual Studio . This is something I have wondered about for some time . Thank You Kindly - Best
Not an employee, been using their products. I'd like to know that myself.
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Edward, The way you asked the question gets you a lot of answers that reflect the experience of the responders. Skills are only a part of the equation, and I don't think it's of value for any of us to just spew out a list of the latest or greatest skills. The industry is large enough so you can find 'demand' with a widely varied skill set. As someone said, there are really good Cobol jobs that are in demand due to the scarcity of Cobol programmers. What I'd ask of you is: What is your work experience at this point? If you've been around since GWB, you're not starting out in your career. What do you want to do? Small team, large team, challenging, comfortable, etc. Are you looking to be a DBA, Front end, or back end programmer? Desktop, web, phone apps? 'Very good with SQLs' - on a CRUD level or design and interdependency level? It's a relatively easy jump to Postgres or MySQL but again, what are your goals in that case? 'Moderate acquaintances with C#/VB.net'. With the vastness of .net languages, that's not telling me a lot. Industry-wise, my thoughts are that Web/Cloud is the way to go. I'd forget AI and Web 3.0. IoT and VR are promising but those could be really tough skills to take on, depending on your experience. Microsoft: "Where do you want to go today?"
I want any job that I can make a living off of.
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'Very good with SQLs' - on a CRUD level or design and interdependency level?
All of the above.
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Moderate acquaintances with C#/VB.net'. With the vastness of .net languages, that's not telling me a lot.
I have worked mainly in VB6 (oh the horror) doing Business Accounting programming. I have been converting my programs from VB6 to C# and, OOP but everything seems to have gone to the Web. I am sorry for not being more specific. I do appreciate your answer. As far as VB.net goes I feel like I can do about 80%.
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I am slowly digging my way out of the same situation. Here is the skill set I'd be shooting for: * Web development using ASP.NET Core. Including HTML, Javascript, and CSS. (Learn these BEFORE attempting heavy frameworks like Angular or React.) * Docker and Kubernetes. * Basic Cloud technologies such as storage, compute, lambdas, etc. * Learn your way around Linux and open-source tooling. You'll interact with these in the modern world whether you want to or not. * As others suggested, learn what employers in your market want, and develop at least basic familiarity with these. Good luck (to all of us).
There is not much of a market here in New Orleans. I can find many jobs that allow working remotely. those are the ones I am shooting for.
ed
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could you recommend some that are not "cheap"?
ed
I would stick with the big publishers like "Apress", "Murach" etc. and stay clear from self-published authors, college professors (especially those), pulp fiction like O'Reilly or Microsoft certification classes. Any professional book under 30 bucks is rather suspicious.
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Don't forget soft skills such as conflict resolution and project and/or time management. Employers are always looking for these types of skills.
Those and anger management classes. :laugh:
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I am trying to upgrade my skills. I would like opinions from you guys about which languages are in demand by employers. I have been part of the "evil empire" (Microsoft), since GW Basic was their first product. I am very good with Access, SQL, SQL Server but not really any others. I have a moderate acquaintance with C# and VB.Net. What other types of Software/Database skills do you think I need to learn that would help me find a job?
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IMHO jumping on C++ with just VB/C# background will be painful and not verry productive. This is not some new language, it's a different mindset. Unless you are in your early 20, I wouldn't recommend that.
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Wow, after reading all the comments, I didn't know that being an embedded developer for my whole career was the simple life! Assembly language in the early years and then when compiler tech got good enough, C/C++.
sasadler wrote:
being an embedded developer for my whole career was the simple life!
Definitely! And you often get to play with cool hardware before anyone else!
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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Are you implying that people past their early 20s are incapable of handling assembler code C/C++?
To make such major transition you need a plenty of "buffer" time. Time that you don't have if you do this for a living. And unless you're doing something trivial like MFC you need accompanying knowledge of computer architecture (as a bare minimum), embedded systems, or electronics, or controllers or cryptography etc.. What are you using your C++ for?
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I am trying to upgrade my skills. I would like opinions from you guys about which languages are in demand by employers. I have been part of the "evil empire" (Microsoft), since GW Basic was their first product. I am very good with Access, SQL, SQL Server but not really any others. I have a moderate acquaintance with C# and VB.Net. What other types of Software/Database skills do you think I need to learn that would help me find a job?
It depends on what type of job you are trying to find. If it is in the database software development world you might want to look at no SQL databases like Mongo DB. If you are looking for a position as a game programmer you might want to take a look at Unity which will allow you to leverage and improve your C# skills. For embedded programming, you would want to look at the Internet of Things (IoT) and C. Having specific skills and languages on your resume may get you through the HR review, but getting an offer and succeeding at the new job comes down to your ability to: 1 - Understand and solve problems. 2 - Learn and effectively leverage new technologies. 3 - Communicate clearly. For example, if you are a core game software developer, I would expect to see the applications and systems you created, worked on, and how you addressed and solved some of the challenges you faced. Having Unreal/C/C++ on your resume tells me very little; but saying that you updated the unreal memory manager to address the unique needs of Gears of War, tells me a lot about your ability to read code you did not write, and effectively change it to fit the needs of a major game franchise. Naturally in the interview, I would dig into this area to discover just what you did and how you solved those issues.
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I am trying to upgrade my skills. I would like opinions from you guys about which languages are in demand by employers. I have been part of the "evil empire" (Microsoft), since GW Basic was their first product. I am very good with Access, SQL, SQL Server but not really any others. I have a moderate acquaintance with C# and VB.Net. What other types of Software/Database skills do you think I need to learn that would help me find a job?
I'm a bit late in the discussion but I've been in the industry a long time and watched languages come and go. I now rely on Stack Overflow's annual survey which shows some surprising results. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/ Javascript still tops the most popular list and SQL and C# are still up there. Rust is the most loved and least dreaded but ranks at only 9.32% on the most popular list. There are other anomalies as well. As long as the technologies I am using are high up in the most popular list I'm quite relaxed about job prospects. It's not us developers that decide on the languages and platforms it's management and they are interested in a whole range of other issues like continuity support cost etc. I wouldn't pay much attention to the "highest paying" list it can be skewed by unusual temporary demand and small samples and can change very quickly. Microsoft always cops a hostile beating but the MS ecosystem still looks pretty healthy. I've also recently noticed a few bespoke business systems being ported from Heroku/aws to Azure due to uptime reliability issues.
There are some things that can only be seen by the mind - JS
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I want any job that I can make a living off of.
Quote:
'Very good with SQLs' - on a CRUD level or design and interdependency level?
All of the above.
Quote:
Moderate acquaintances with C#/VB.net'. With the vastness of .net languages, that's not telling me a lot.
I have worked mainly in VB6 (oh the horror) doing Business Accounting programming. I have been converting my programs from VB6 to C# and, OOP but everything seems to have gone to the Web. I am sorry for not being more specific. I do appreciate your answer. As far as VB.net goes I feel like I can do about 80%.
No horror in working VB6; there really is still a big codebase out there in VB6. As someone else mentioned - sorry forgot who, looking at asp.net is something logical since you can leverage your existing abilities in VB/C#. Tack on HTML5/CSS, which are pretty quick learns for someone with decent programming background. The Web has really become the place to be and many desktop apps are moving some or all functionality to web-based. While I can still spin a much deeper interface in VB/C# desktop; if there is a web-side to the app we're building and maintaining two code bases. It's somewhat less seen in the pro accounting world, but it's there in POS modules, remote employee functions, etc. Would I venture into the *nix world with some of the other languages? Probably not for a paycheck, it's a leap. Helpful to have some experience with Postgres and MySQL, but they're just DBs, yeah different than MS DBs but still much the same and a quick learn.
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Are you implying that people past their early 20s are incapable of handling assembler code C/C++?
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I want any job that I can make a living off of.
Quote:
'Very good with SQLs' - on a CRUD level or design and interdependency level?
All of the above.
Quote:
Moderate acquaintances with C#/VB.net'. With the vastness of .net languages, that's not telling me a lot.
I have worked mainly in VB6 (oh the horror) doing Business Accounting programming. I have been converting my programs from VB6 to C# and, OOP but everything seems to have gone to the Web. I am sorry for not being more specific. I do appreciate your answer. As far as VB.net goes I feel like I can do about 80%.
I'd also add that taking a look at W3Schools Online Web Tutorials[^] can be a fun little exercise. It tends to be really basic level stuff, but you can take a look at a lot of varied technologies to see if any catch your eye. Then you can do research from there.