Comment by NegatioN
3 years ago
I don't understand why so many people seem to disagree with this point.
If you're a specialist that's one thing, but a normal software stack should be generalizable?
I got hired at all of my jobs so far without having major prior experience with the languages they use, and definitely not the frameworks.
Myself and others would consider your experience unique/not the norm. If you don’t mind me asking, what was the mechanism used to obtain those jobs? Was it primarily via networking or word of mouth, did you have some type of in? Or were your jobs with smaller employers or startups perhaps? Because in “The Enterprise” you’ll be disqualified straight away if you don’t have a certain amount of experience in a certain framework.
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve tried to explain that every new technology I’ve learned I’ve picked up on the job and specific framework experience is largely irrelevant, I’d be a rich man.
For example, I’ve been a software engineer for 27 years using tech stacks primarily within the Java ecosystem but encompassing many different frameworks, languages, databases etc. However, getting a job in a similar or even identical business domains but on the .NET tech stack would be next to impossible.
I might be atypical, for sure. I've moved through Java, Go, Python, c++ and recently to Scala now, with no contacts at any of the companies I've applied to, but hopefully good references in each case. I've only been a dev for 7-ish years and had 3 separate jobs in that time. Youth might have given me some leniency in the first moves, but maybe less so in the latest one.
Im from a small country, so it might just be that the developers have a stronger hand at the negotiation table than elsewhere, since there're fewer competent devs as a result.
In any case, as a programmer I feel like I would always hire someone that demonstrates good programming skills in the "wrong language" over someone who's mediocre in the "right language", so it's sad to hear that's not the case many places. And that might be a lesson I should keep in the back of my mind as well.