Changing technologies

[Learthy]

I, a permie, would like to get a job working with a different technology. At the moment the market is saturated with .NET developers and there appears to be a shortage of Java / PHP / C developers.

I have not done any real work with PHP and have not used Java and C for years and years. There is significantly better money in those areas, especially in C, according to what I read on job advertisements, and I feel it'd be a job with a bit more respect. There are so many .NET developers around that asking for pay increases is no easy task.

My job only works with .NET technologies so getting experience outside of that technology on the job is out of the question.

How do I go about doing this without taking a graduate position / major pay cut for a few years? Or am I doomed to be a C# codemonkey all my life?

Thanks. Sorry if this is off topic but, for obvious reasons, I cannot ask my colleagues on this one.

[xing]

I, a permie, would like to get a job working with a different technology. At the moment the market is saturated with .NET developers and there appears to be a shortage of Java / PHP / C developers.

I have not done any real work with PHP and have not used Java and C for years and years. There is significantly better money in those areas, especially in C, according to what I read on job advertisements, and I feel it'd be a job with a bit more respect. There are so many .NET developers around that asking for pay increases is no easy task.

My job only works with .NET technologies so getting experience outside of that technology on the job is out of the question.

How do I go about doing this without taking a graduate position / major pay cut for a few years? Or am I doomed to be a C# codemonkey all my life?

Thanks. Sorry if this is off topic but, for obvious reasons, I cannot ask my colleagues on this one.

How about pick an open source project of your preferred tech stack and start contributing?

Also it helps to focus on practice transferable skills on the job. Be a brilliant coder and you'll find people care less about your tech stack.

[wonderboy]

I, a permie, would like to get a job working with a different technology. At the moment the market is saturated with .NET developers and there appears to be a shortage of Java / PHP / C developers.

I have not done any real work with PHP and have not used Java and C for years and years. There is significantly better money in those areas, especially in C, according to what I read on job advertisements, and I feel it'd be a job with a bit more respect. There are so many .NET developers around that asking for pay increases is no easy task.

Interesting question. I am in the process of changing stacks. I was a C#/ASP.NET MVC developer (and got quite good at it), but I grew disenchanted with the somewhat legacy nature of the stack most .NET-based companies were running (subjective I know, but I am tired of ORMs and SQL Server) - plus the dearth of jobs above 450/day in London. I picked JavaScript for my new stack and frankly the transition has been tough. The way I approached it was to develop a significant personal project in JavaScript. This requires a great deal of time and effort outside of the office.

The major problems I have encountered have actually been cultural. Each stack has a culture (e.g. do you recoil at the mention of a factory?) and you soon realise that best practices that you believed to be common knowledge can no longer be taken for granted (separation of concerns? Most JavaScript developers have heard of it and that's about it). A transition from C# to Java might be easier given the somewhat closer cultures.

In short, double check your maths. I know that there is a meme in the industry that Java developers are higher paid, but my experience tells me that the gap is not that large, if it exists at all. They certainly have a superiority complex IME, but whether it is warranted is open to question. There probably are, however, a greater number of Java jobs. That said there are probably more Java developers, so it's swings and roundabouts. Anecdotally, PHP pays worse than C# and Java because outside of Facebook it is seen as somewhat of a "cowboy" language (possibly my own personal bias!). There are websites out there that will help with hard numbers.

If there is something helping you switching stacks, it is the broken nature of the interview process. Usually memorising interview questions will get you a long way (cynical, but true).

[SimonMac]

I am not a code monkey so my advice can be completely disregarded, but to me the post comes across as you want to change for financial reasons, if this is the case stop now, a .Net contractor (if you go that way) will out earn a Java/C Permie as no one would take you on as a contractor to reskill you.

An alternative might be to instead of switching to another, albeit in your eyes a better paid, established technology find the next language where no one has any experience on and if you are a good coder you can pick up and run with, or go niche within .Net is there a certain .Net skill that is under represented on the market.

[Unix]

I find the C#/.Net market always booming and rates range from £250 to £600+( in banking). Maybe you need to specialise in some are of .NET like WPF or Azure?

[woohoo]

Practice.

[d000hg]

I thought PHP devs were a dime a dozen, and Java devs not much better. C++ or C is more niche but you need to be good.

[lilelvis2000]

Frigg. I work accross PHP, .Net, Coldfusion these days. Of those I detest PHP. coldfusion is berable, and .Net rocks.

No way would I move from .Net to PHP full time. I'd commit suicide.

Besides there are so many shops doing PHP the wages are mediocre.