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.Net Programmers Fall in CNN's Top 5 In-Demand
GT_Alias writes "CNN Money is reporting that .Net programmers are one of the top 5 most in-demand jobs. Of the positions where recent surveys have indicated a labor shortage, .Net developers and QA analysts are the two that fell under the 'technology' category. According to CNN Money, .Net developers can make between $75-85K starting out in major cities, with the potential to make 15% more if they have a particular proficiency. Additionally, QA workers can make $65-75K a year with the ability to negotiate a 10-15% pay jump if they switch jobs. How does this information compare with the Slashdot crowd's real-world experience?"
From TFA: "Microsoft's software programming language .NET"
.NET's a platform or function library if you will not a programming language. Not getting your facts straight doesn't inspire me to have a lot of confidence.
Also, I see a lot of new QA jobs emphasizing programming skills, thus driving up the wages. These days, excellent QA organizations will devote at least 50% of their efforts towards automation, either by building their own suites or leveraging off-the-shelf solutions. This is good for QA folk who eventually want to migrate into development, as they'll gain valuable skills along the way.
Are we talking ASP.Net? Are we talking SQL Server 2005 c# stored procedures gurus? Are we talking J# Nhibernate & Nant wizards? Could we possibly be talking about .NET Portable CLR professionals designing VOIP applications for Windows Mobile 2005?
Honestly, wihtout specifying the phrase ".NET Developers" more precisely the discussion will become meaningless.
My POV: a new college graduatre who can barely create encapsulated objects is not going to be pulling the same money as a Java turned C# enterprise framework analyst who writes the patterns published in those clever books.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security - Ben Franklin
I believe most educational centers use Java as their demonstration language these days
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I'm a C#/.NET developer here in Australia, been doing C# for the last 5 years within a diverse range of industries. Prior to that I was a C++ dev for about 12 years. Before the dotcom crash I was on a 6-figure salary, now as a C# hack I earn about the lower end of the figures quoted - in Australian dollars (about 3/4 the value of US dollars).
One thing though, I got sick of the constant crap in C++ just spending more time on the stupid COM plumbing and myriad datatypes than actual applications work. Going to C# was a damn breath of fresh air. I LOVE it. I can actually get useful shit done that does stuff for the END USER of the the product and after all that's what the company pays me for. Perhaps I should just move to the US but with the god-bothering, shootings and rampant intake of GE food I think I'll give it a miss thanks. Oh and the lack of more than a week or two holidays... gackkk.
Download the Express editions of visual XXX.NET and then go watch the streaming multi-media lessons. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/lear ning/default.aspx
If you've done any real programming it seems fairly straight forward and the express software is similiar enough to the real stuff. The beginning lessons do a fairly decent job of showing you how to use the IDE which I think is probably just as tricky (if not trickier) than learning a new syntax.
Never underestimate the stupidity of large groups (the employers) of people
.NET, especially the 2.0 framework is nice. The IDEs are finally catching up with the likes of Eclipse and Slick Edit (although Slick Edit still owns all), The code generated is fast and you can develop very fast on it.
.NET just because you don't like Microsoft. C# and .NET are a good platform to develop on, especially in the Windows monoculture.
So a company, who has it's infrastructure on Windows, should use a development environment not designed for it? Or worse, scrap Windows and install Linux? You know in a utopic world this would be a good thing to do. But not all companies are filthy rich that can afford the costs migration to the "cool *nix tech du jour". Some companies, especially the small and medium ones that are strapped for cash can't afford migration that means: training people, replacing most software and whatnot.
I hate Microsoft like the next guy, but
Need a http server? About 10 lines of code of C#.
Need a windows service? About 6 lines of code C#.
Don't bash
Visual Basic .NET, C# .NET, ASP .NET, ...
What the article says is that Windows Programmers Fall in CNN's Top 5 In-Demand.
My city: Barcelona.
Damn that i burnt all my mod points this morning. This is EXACTLY what I'm doing right now, as part of my master thesis. For all the Swedes out there, that already have some programming skills, I would strongly recommend reading Anders Forsberg - Programmering i C#. It concentrates on the parts making C# different from other languages and cuts the crap out. Add to that some kind of .NET Framework overview book, and you should have what it takes to get at least decent on your own.
Also, Visual Studio isn't a good IDE - it's a great one (especially compared to some of Microsoft's other software offerings). And I'm usually in the *nix crowd. Possibly vim or emacs are better, but they have a really high entrance barrier...
I have a really elegant proof for Fermat's last theorem. If this sig was only a bit longer...
I am graduating this spring from a major state university in the south. In our program we have learned such things as C, C++, PHP, Perl, Ruby(currently learning), Java, Javascript, and various other things in the Unix/Debain Linux environment. It was recommended by the Managing Principal of a software consulting firm that I learn the .NET suite on my own. Since I have done so and put C#.NET,ADO.NET, and ASP.NET on my resume the interest in my skills has gone up considerably. Just about every interview I go on now the employer is mainly interested in my .NET knowledge. I have found that the automatic code generation in VS 2005 allows me to spend more time on security and correct by design (not correct by testing).
But Pascal isn't really used anymore, is it? What ever happened to that great language?
It became Delphi...
"Where should I go to start learning .Net programming?" - by B_un1t (942155) on Saturday February 04, @07:42AM
.NET).
.NET here...
IF you've programmed before professionally, especially with say, VB6?
Jump into it on the job OR on your own (there really is no other way imo, & nothing beats it) - You'll take to this like a duck to water most likely in that case.
See, I used to dislike the performance of its apps, but now 2-3 years later faster CPU's tend to make up for much of it.
(If you've background developing Windows apps with RAD tools like Access, Delphi, or VB6 & below? It's simple enough to get used to using the VS IDE (very nice) - Even for WebForms apps, which mainly imo, is a curious blend of ASP.NET & VB code + RAD development passing around various datastructures between the elements like Sessions &/or HttpResponse data structures-arrays (albeit with differences from VB6, that are MORE like Delphi, in the Try-Catch/Finally-EndTry construct for example)).
That's been my opinion of working with VB.NET 2003 + SQLServer 2000 @ work, & for business applications!
I would recommend it for line-of-business/enterprise-class MIS/IS/IT work which is part of the lifeblood of companies (information) - Mainly, because it is a SAFE runtime managed language system with automated garbage cleanup & secure!
(For example, unlike what you heard about ISAPI apps running server-side would memory-leak the IIS webserver to death - not the case with the apps you can produce for the same effect via Visual Studio because of that garbage cleanup memory mgt. being runtime automated in the apps for it).
Rapid turn-around times for reporting apps for instance as well, & a proven toolset for it.
Lately @ home, I am also messing w/ Visual Studio 2005 (many differences vs. VS 2003 imo, subtle mostly, but noticeable), & using SQLServer 2005 as my backend DB engine (big diff. from SQLServer 2000 in many ways, but Transact SQL is always T-SQL & the main thing to know of course, @ least imo ALL on Windows Server 2003 SP #1 fully hotfix patched.
Stable as a rock first of all - let that be known right-off-the-bat! Microsoft's finally got an industrial strength backend from the OS floor up to the DB & Webserver backend engines as their foundation. The tools you use to create what rides on that are also great, & create STABLE + SAFE CODE first & foremost to keep that stability there.
E.G.-> VS2003-2005 both have a really nice Class-based development schema & building things like multiple thread bearing apps is simple in it as well for an example of what I like about it.
The System object alone has a function/method hierarchy you wouldn't believe as well, & that is just 1 example of another thing I like about it - it's loaded with great features.
However - Would I build an app with high performance (speed) requirements with it?
Probably not.
I'd choose Delphi over it for that personally (Delphi 7 & below actually, they are pure Win32, not
* BUT, for business application coding? Absolutely
APK
P.S.=> If you are absolutely new to programming?
Then I would recommend taking coursework & putting it on your resume.
Keep this in mind - "Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft" & it seems to be firmly entrenched in the minds of mgt. because there have been SO many proven & successful applications written with full case-studies in detail of them!
That alone makes it VERY tough to NOT go with MS imo, especially in business environs... makes you employable! apk
Delphi uses Object Pascal, if you started with Pascal the transition is easy.
Another thing to keep an eye on is Lazarus (www.lazarus.freepascal.org)
Basically it is an open source and multi-platform Delphi look-alike
now at release 0.9.10 and improving steadily.
Lazarus uses Freepascal 2.X as compiler and LCL (sort of a multiplatform VCL) as GUI toolkit.
Lazarus runs on Windows, Linux and Mac, the Freepascal compiler supports x86, x86-64, ARM, Sparc, PowerPC and MC68000.
IMHO Lazarus+Freepascal are already perfect for learning programming and are very near to become good enough as a multiplatform Delphi alternative for serious development.
VS.NET is not such a great IDE after all. It's actually mediocre compared to offerings available for Java.
What if you are working on a project with 30,000 source files. There is no way to tell the IDE open file "FooBar.sc". Code exploration and navigation is not well supported (the source view at the bottom is copied from Eclipse, but has limited usefulness and it's a lot slower than corresponding view in Eclipse).
Now Eclipse is a great IDE. With a click of a button each line of java code becomes a link (as in web page link). You can navigate and explore and learn 100,000,000 line code base much faster with it. It has favourites/forward/back buttons etc.
You can open any type using Camel case or wild cards, so you never have to memorize what project/package/folder the file you want to work on is in, etc.
Re-factoring support is much better than VS.NET 2005 etc.
All in all, light years ahead of anything we have seen from MS so far.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
VS.Net lets you do that, You see a function you want to explore, push F12, you go right to the definition. Then you got forward and backward buttons to go back and forth to where you've been in the code. Oh, and you can mark places like a favourites list. Can't recall what they call the specific feature, but it puts a blue arrow beside the line, and it shows up in your task list. Just because you aren't aware of how to do things in VS.Net, doesn't mean it doesn't do them. And this is only in VS.Net 2002, I'm sure things have improved in the new 2005 version.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.