Question

My path to a ‘fulltime’- developer stated as a analyst using VBA with Excel, Access, and then onto C#. I went to college part time once I discovered I had a passion for coding not business.

I do about most of my coding in C#, but being an ASP.NET developer I also write in HTML, JavaScript, SQL etc. . . the usual suspects.

I like to keep moving forward find the edge that will get me to the next level, the next job, and of course more money. Most importantly I just want to learning something new and challenge me.

I have spent time recently learning LINQ, but was wondering what should I learn next? Something on the .NET Framework or a new language technology?

Answer 1

If you want to be one of the best you need to specialise. If you become very good in many skills then you may never become truly excellent in one. I know because I have taken this route myself and have found it difficult to get employment at times. After all, who wants someone who is capable at many languages when there is someone who excels at the specific thing they need. If a company develops in C# then who would want someone who is OK at C# but also is good at C, Visual Basic, Perl and Cobol, when all they really want is the best possible C# developer for the money they can afford.

After all, you will only ever be employed for one, maybe two of your skills. There are very few jobs for people who are good in 10 or 15 skills.

If you are looking to a new skill then maybe check out the job boards and find which skills are particularly in need, but be aware that what is the flavour of the month this year may not even be on the scene next year, which will make all of that effort to learn the skill futile and wasted.

What I would say is:

1. do one thing, and do it well. This may include supporting skills (C#, ASP.Net, SQL, LINQ etc).
2. If you want to choose something else, then choose something complementary.
3. Possibly most importantly, choose something you will enjoy. Maybe Ruby on Rails is the current flavour of the month, but if you don’t enjoy doing it, then don’t do it. Really, it’s not worth it. You will never wish, on your death bed, that you had worked more in something you didn’t enjoy.

Another direction you could look at is maybe not for a particular development skill, but look for something else, maybe soft skills like people management, better business understanding or even look to something like literary skills to help improve your communications skills. All of these will help to allow you to do what you want to do more, and cut down on the stuff you really don’t enjoy, thus helping to make your job more enjoyable.

Apologies for the waffling here. Hope you are still awake 🙂