Job Prospects

funkey_monkey

Hi,

I've been working as a software engineer for 10+ years now in the area of high integrity software - working primarily in Ada across design & verification roles.

I'm getting concerned about what I feel is a lack of broadness in my CV and being pigeon-holed. There are so many graduates now coming out with a skillset that would appear to be closer to employers need than what mine currently details.

I don't really have much time in the evenings in order to enhance skills through learning a new language at the miunte. In my job I've picked up numerous skills without any formal training and I have a very good work ethic.

However, will my lack of mainstream skills adversly affect me in the job market or will my history be of interest to potential employers?

I've seen quite a few guys with good CV's come into our office and for one reason or another be absolutely useless compared to the lesser skilled guy who has a good work ethic and desire to work/learn.

Would I be in a position to start applying for positions or do I need to get some more mainstream skills on my CV?


Thanks.

bpmurray

Being able to problem-solve is the main thing employers look for, but having experience in the technologies used is important too. Unfortunately Ada isn't flavour of the month right now, and hasn't been for a while (if ever).

Why not get an account on one of the PaaS sites, e.g. Heroku or Bluemix? Just play with them, using each service until you know how it works. The reality is that enterprises mostly use Java+JSP/C#+ASP, HTML+CSS+JavaScript (using JQuery, AngularJS, ect.), RDBMS + SQL, as well as mobile (Cordova, Java, Objective C), so try them.

funkey_monkey

I'm mostly interested in the embedded software side of things.
If I was to pick up one or two skills that would appeal to employers what should I be looking at?

Thanks.

bpmurray

It depends on the embedded devices. Many provide an HTML/CSS/Javascript interface so that's an obvious one, but the core of such devices is usually C. If you know C and the web tier, that would be pretty strong.

EamonnDunne

With no evidence, I'm guessing Ada jobs are thin on the ground. I've never written it but a bit of google makes it look a little like ruby, which might be an easier transition then to the C syntax family of languages. Ruby also has a garbage collector which will afford you a luxury from the manual memory management of Ada.

In summary Ruby looks like a marketable skill you could transition to easily, however C++,Java,C# will also have the recruiters harassing you.

UCDVet

EamonnDunne wrote: »

With no evidence, I'm guessing Ada jobs are thin on the ground. I've never written it but a bit of google makes it look a little like ruby, which might be an easier transition then to the C syntax family of languages. Ruby also has a garbage collector which will afford you a luxury from the manual memory management of Ada.

In summary Ruby looks like a marketable skill you could transition to easily, however C++,Java,C# will also have the recruiters harassing you.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like C# is shifting heavily to the web. I'm seeing like 20x the number of jobs for ASP.Net compared to winforms/wpf positions. I haven't done much Java - but I'd be curious to know if it's the same?

bpmurray

Similar - C# is Microsoft's play against Java. the languages are very similar.

L.Jenkins

UCDVet wrote: »

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like C# is shifting heavily to the web. I'm seeing like 20x the number of jobs for ASP.Net compared to winforms/wpf positions. I haven't done much Java - but I'd be curious to know if it's the same?

bpmurray wrote: »

Similar - C# is Microsoft's play against Java. the languages are very similar.

With respect to C#, you've got a lot of .NET geared towards the Internet Applications and so on. I would suggest Funky, that you could do a Java Certification or a Certification in another language.