To Delphi, or not To Delphi...
-
Once upon a time there was an aspiring programmer, he could handle any project thrown at him. He optimized sort algorithms with one hand while teaching novices the intricacies of Pascal with the other hand, all the while working on his latest assembly program for his robots. Life was good. Then came the evil cloud of monetary responsibility. There were no developer jobs available and our poor programmer needed to make more money now. An employer smile and said, "I have a job for you!". The programmer was happy; everything would be all right now. But wait! This is a systems job! Now he must build systems, analyze networks and secure web servers. This isn't what he wanted! Oh well, it pays the bills and our poor programmer turns out to be good at it. Besides it is only temporary, right? Re-enter the scene 14 years later, our poor programmer is STILL doing mostly systems work. Oh, sure, sometimes he gets to do work on a web site. Occasionally he even gets to do the backend work and tinker with the databases. Then there is the occasional PERL script to automate some of the admin duties. But it is just not the same. So our poor programmer decides the time is ripe to try and push back into the development world. He is comfortable with PERL and ASP and VB, but he doesn't feel truly marketable as a developer, aside from web work. What should the poor lost soul do to get back from the dark side? Seriously, I want to push back into development. I have been playing with Delphi, because of my Pascal background. And I am looking at Java and C. Has anybody got any recommendations as to what to pursue? What is marketable? What is fun? Should I skip Delphi? (But it is so cool!) I should also mention that I would like to seek work overseas eventually, so I want my developer skill set to be functional in countries other than my native USA. How is the job market for developers in Australia? Jason Jystad VP in charge of Goofy Quotations Cito Technologies www.citotech.net >------------------------------------------------< "Luckily," he went on, "you have come to exactly the right place with your interesting problem, for there is no such word as 'impossible' in my dictionary. In fact," he added, brandishing the abused book, "everything between 'herring' and 'marmalade' seems to be missing." -- Dirk Gently (Douglas Adams) >------------------------------------------------<
-
Once upon a time there was an aspiring programmer, he could handle any project thrown at him. He optimized sort algorithms with one hand while teaching novices the intricacies of Pascal with the other hand, all the while working on his latest assembly program for his robots. Life was good. Then came the evil cloud of monetary responsibility. There were no developer jobs available and our poor programmer needed to make more money now. An employer smile and said, "I have a job for you!". The programmer was happy; everything would be all right now. But wait! This is a systems job! Now he must build systems, analyze networks and secure web servers. This isn't what he wanted! Oh well, it pays the bills and our poor programmer turns out to be good at it. Besides it is only temporary, right? Re-enter the scene 14 years later, our poor programmer is STILL doing mostly systems work. Oh, sure, sometimes he gets to do work on a web site. Occasionally he even gets to do the backend work and tinker with the databases. Then there is the occasional PERL script to automate some of the admin duties. But it is just not the same. So our poor programmer decides the time is ripe to try and push back into the development world. He is comfortable with PERL and ASP and VB, but he doesn't feel truly marketable as a developer, aside from web work. What should the poor lost soul do to get back from the dark side? Seriously, I want to push back into development. I have been playing with Delphi, because of my Pascal background. And I am looking at Java and C. Has anybody got any recommendations as to what to pursue? What is marketable? What is fun? Should I skip Delphi? (But it is so cool!) I should also mention that I would like to seek work overseas eventually, so I want my developer skill set to be functional in countries other than my native USA. How is the job market for developers in Australia? Jason Jystad VP in charge of Goofy Quotations Cito Technologies www.citotech.net >------------------------------------------------< "Luckily," he went on, "you have come to exactly the right place with your interesting problem, for there is no such word as 'impossible' in my dictionary. In fact," he added, brandishing the abused book, "everything between 'herring' and 'marmalade' seems to be missing." -- Dirk Gently (Douglas Adams) >------------------------------------------------<
I have just been out looking for jobs, and I can say one thing. There's way more jobs for C/C++ programmers than for Delphi Programmers. There's also a lot of jobs for Java or VB guys. But I noticed that there is not many jobs for web developers anymore... Well, I have to say that I live in Denmark, and of course I don't know anything about the job market in the rest of the world... - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
-
I have just been out looking for jobs, and I can say one thing. There's way more jobs for C/C++ programmers than for Delphi Programmers. There's also a lot of jobs for Java or VB guys. But I noticed that there is not many jobs for web developers anymore... Well, I have to say that I live in Denmark, and of course I don't know anything about the job market in the rest of the world... - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
Thanks Anders. Europe in general is also on my list of places to possibly go and work for a few years. I am of Norweigian descent myself, and I would like to see northern Europe at some point. I hate the tourist thing, I have never found visiting places to be very interesting. I much prefer to live places for a while instead. Besides, you never know when you are going to find a place where you want to stay permanently. I have gotten tired of living here, I keep moving around and then being unhappy in the new place. I would like to try Europe, Australia, or perhaps New Zeland and see what I think. Anyway, thanks for the input! Jason Jystad Cito Technologies www.citotech.net
-
Thanks Anders. Europe in general is also on my list of places to possibly go and work for a few years. I am of Norweigian descent myself, and I would like to see northern Europe at some point. I hate the tourist thing, I have never found visiting places to be very interesting. I much prefer to live places for a while instead. Besides, you never know when you are going to find a place where you want to stay permanently. I have gotten tired of living here, I keep moving around and then being unhappy in the new place. I would like to try Europe, Australia, or perhaps New Zeland and see what I think. Anyway, thanks for the input! Jason Jystad Cito Technologies www.citotech.net
Dude - get your butt down to NZ - it's summer here - nice weather - real sunny. There are jobs for most computer stuff but C/C++ is very dominant at the moment. Heaps of New Zealanders / Aussies go to Europe anyway because the pay is better plus you guys have better snow. Steve.