[Mylo]

I have one more year in school so I wanted to get a general idea of what languages I should know to get a job. I have been learning java for about 3 weeks now, but I was thinking I should focus my efforts on JavaEE rather than game development (which I'm happy to hold off anyway). And leave game programming to another language like c#/c++. Here is the job listing which I have:

http://mycareer.com....ogrammer/?s=504

It seems that there is a few javaEE, several C#/.Net, multiple business types, and several web systems. There is a java graduate developer job - But I don't know the skills required, most likely far more than what I know though. Nothing c++, so I am not going to learn it for now, unless you can reason otherwise.

I'm not thinking of taking any jobs now, but at sometime towards the end of the year or beginning of next year (I could also get another job while I study more on programming though). I really don't have the funds to go to courses, nor have I been able to find any in my location.

My main concern overall is which area to focus learning on. I will have on average maybe 4-5 hours a day to learn and during school as well. I just want to secure a job while I study further.

Should I: (If I can by the end of the year)

Learn alot of java (included JavaEE)
Learn JavaEE 'well'
Learn C#/VBNet
Learn c++
Learn something like ASP.Net/Ruby/HTML(with css and js)
Something else?

Other things I might need as well is XML/SQL

I don't really have a preference on language, so I don't mind any of them. What are your opinions?

This post has been edited by Mylo: 12 December 2011 - 06:30 PM

[tlhIn`toq]

See FAQ #27

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FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions - Updated Nov 2011

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  Hi,
  I'm currently learning C# in class at the moment and I'm a little bit stuck on what this question means.
  
  [...]
  show me where I can get help,

  
  
  Your professor. That's where to start for a couple reasons:
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  2. You're the one paying them. Tens of thousands of dollars for your education. You need to learn to take every ounce of knowledge you can from these teachers and not sit passively back and try to learn it on the outside. If you were going to do that then you didn't need to take out all the student loans that are going to keep you in debt for the next 15 years.
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• Q: What is the best programming language or O.S. I should be learning on?
  
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  Spoiler

  There is a novice projects thread here on DIC. But here's my advice whenever this comes up:
  
  Look around. Anyone who can't find a dozen projects a day by just walking through life, is doing so with their eyes closed to the world.
  

  • Do you like the weather? What about a program to get the various weather reports from different web sites? Or to integrate with one of the numerous USB weather station hobby kits on the market?
    
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  What about every time you walk into a business and someone says "Oh, I'm sorry. The computers are slow/suck. This is going to take 10 minutes and 25 screens." SOunds like an opportunity to make and maybe even sell them a new program. So go home and make it first before you open your mouth. If you succeed in something great. If you fail, then you know where to study more and you haven't embarrassed yourself.
  
  Go to any of the on-line coder for hire sites. Read the new contract descriptions. DON'T BID ON THEM. Just read them. This will tell you what is requested by employers so you know where you have the potential to make money, and tell you where you should study. Then pick a project and build it. TRACK YOUR TIME. If you don't know how long it takes you to build a project then you won't be able to bid on contracts. If you bid $50 for 50 hours of work you're going to starve to death. Again, building projects just to learn the technology and learn your own speed and weaknesses is something we all do/did and you need to do too. Once you can build a project just for the learning experience, fast enough that you could have made a competitive bid... Now you can start considering actually bidding on new contracts that are in your skill set.
  
  
  
  
• Q:How do I decide how much to charge for my application?
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• Q:I get an error when I try to use a textbox for numeric values and the user types non-numbers. What do I do?
  A:
  Spoiler

  We see this a LOT, especially with rookies using textbox for numeric input.
  
  Any input that can't be converted to a number will do this.
  "5" can become 5
  "yogi" cannot become a number
  string.empty cannot become a number
  
  You would be best off changing from a textbox to a NumericUpDown or to inherit from textbox to make a numerictextbox.
  
  There are a LOT of articles on making a NumericTextBox. Try googling "C# NumericTextBox" and you should find a lot, such as this one on the MSDN:
  
  http://msdn.microsof...4(v=vs.80).aspx
  
  Once you study the code you'll see that as each key is pressed it is checked to see if it is a number. If not, then it is ignored. Thus the user can only enter numerically valid values.

[Mylo]

Well it seems like java is the winner by looking at that. Followed by a C language (which will probably be c# first). I suppose if anything, learning both at the same time might be useful - since I am a huge procrastinator, I would have 3 times as much done if I didn't.

Thanks tlhIn

[Jonekare]

Well,it is a good question.I think c#,php will be used for future job.

[Duckington]

Well if you take the main set of programming languages and related technologies and do some keyword searchs for them on an IT job site, you can get an idea of roughly what areas will offer better job opportunities.

Obviously some of the results won't be particularly relevant and there will be cross overs, but it gives you a basic overview of where the jobs are.

Here's the results from CWJOBS.co.uk as of right now:

SQL - 3404 Jobs
C# - 1862 Jobs
Java - 1728 Jobs
Oracle - 1227 Jobs
ASP.NET - 1126 jobs
C++ - 913 Jobs
PHP - 706 Jobs
MySQL - 647 Jobs
Visual Basic - 611 Jobs
SAP - 539 Jobs
Python - 349 Jobs
Perl - 325 Jobs
ERP - 207 Jobs
Ruby - 179 Jobs
MSSQL - 54 Jobs
PostgreSQL - 50 Jobs
Assembly - 45 Jobs
Coldfusion - 32 Jobs
ADA - 7 Jobs


So for the best chance of getting a job, i'd suggest either Java or one of the C languages, plus good MySQL/SQL knowledge. And HTML/CSS/Javascript (jquery & AJAX) to at least a basic level, unless you really want to focus solely on the backend stuff, but they would normally be expected tbh.

Also, consider taking certifications to enhance your CV, such as the Zend certifications if you can afford it, or can convince an employer that they should pay for it. Every one and their dog has a degree nowadays, but that sort of certification can help you stand out a little more.

If you're looking for the area that makes the most money, that would be SAP/ERP. That's where the really big money is, but it's not for the faint hearted and certainly not for novices.


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http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/ - Jobs
http://en.wikipedia....source_planning - More info on ERP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_AG - More info on SAP/SAP AG
http://langpop.com/ - Programming Language Popularity
http://duckduckgo.com/ - A search engine to support your individual research that isn't owned by an evil corporation hell bent on world domination

[wordswords]

I find the IT Jobs Watch website to be useful for comparing popularity and use of programming languages and other skills in the UK marketplace: http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/

[erkant]

Actually it depends to what kind of career you want to pursue. If you are looking forward to parallel programming or programming heterogeneous systems, which in my opinion is the future. You should learn C, C++, and some of the other things like CUDA, OpenCL, MPI, etc. But if want to work as a game developer, or .NET developer, which are famous jobs at the moment, than you will need strong Java and C# knowledge. And if you want to work in web development area, which never finishes, you need some HTML, PHP, CSS, Flash and things like that.

This post has been edited by erkant: 26 December 2011 - 05:17 AM

[Charles Elena]

I think language that are of Open Source will the future programming language. This is what I think so.