Autodidact, front-end or back-end, job prospects? | Hacker News Reader

Autodidact, front-end or back-end, job prospects?

13 pointscendio13 comments

I plan to teach myself either front- or back-end programming with the goal being employment. Now relocation is something I'm willing to do. However, considering my age, 20, will I be taken seriously?

I'm open for any kind of advice or wisdom. .Net seems to be very high in demand. As someone from Europe, how easy would it be to get a job in some start up?

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You will be most employable as a full stack Linux Dev. Learn Linux, git, ruby/python/php/go and/or JavaScript. Make a couple personal projects, take a couple low paying contract gigs, and if you can actually ship code it won't be long till people are knocking on your door trying to hire you.

Becoming an expert in one of the more popular frameworks is probably the quickest paths to gainful employment.

Contact me via my contact info on my profile here. Plenty to do!

In the EU (I am there as well) there is definitely more than enough work in Java, C#, PHP, Ruby(Rails) and a lot more. The basic thing is; learn something well and you'll be able to pick up something else quickly. Java or C# are good starting points, but like said; there are other ways.

Edit: As croggle said as well; I wouldn't start with JS at all. I think that's a bad move.

Hey, I was just wondering why you think learning JS is a bad move? As someone positioning themselves in this industry and not often hearing the bad sides of things, this would be great to hear.

As first language I think it's not a good idea like I don't think PHP as first language is not a good idea. They stimulate bad programming habits more than the more rigid languages, and they don't give you a solid foundation. Obviously there are exceptions, but generally this is the case. Basically: JS -> something else is hard while Java/C# to something else is much easier. We train quite a lot of people, and you see that people who come from Java/C#/C++ jump to JS/LUA/Ruby/Python in a very short time, while people who have been primarily doing JS or PHP have a lot more issues.

Most people on here will push you towards the over-saturated market of JavaScript (insert framework of the week here). Personally, I would get to grips with something with a less hispter vibe that is oversaturated with devs taking low pay.

Learn Java, learn the Spring framework, learn Tomcat. These enterprise standard java based technologies will set you up for a solid and well paid career.

Is Java not over-saturated? I thought that was one of the selling points to the suit.

(insert framework of the week here)

There are maybe 3 'frameworks of the week' actually being used today, Backbone, Angular, and Ember.

Spreading FUD is beneficial to nobody

I'm not surprised at the junk replies to this.

Java has many many more jobs than there are good developers. The three buzz word frameworks will stick you in smaller projects that will ultimately pay less. Don't get sucked into the hype.

If you want to see big projects where you will be able to accelerate your career, I would definitely be looking towards the enterprise and consultancy space.

Mobile is still wide open.

Backend works for Mobile or Traditional web. Front end technologies for web dev do not as much. I suggest open source based backend dev.

.NET is incredibly corporate, and will want a degree most likely. Most of the .NET demand is NOT in startups, but giant corporate behemoths with lots of bureaucracy and crazy processess

backend + sysadmin + storage technologies. you'll never be out of work.

the amount of new data that is being produced every day is simply staggering, and everyone seems to be absolutely convinced they need to store, manage, and analyze every last bit of it, forever.

.Net is dying. Even Microsoft has basically abandoned it for JS. If the goal is simply emloyment, front-end is easier to get started with...if you're serious you should start learning server/db stuff soon after you get your first job, because fullstack devs are the most employable.

Dying? Not sure what your definition is of that, but no, it's not. .NET (and JVM) are great and very much alive. Plenty of opportunities on client and server for it. And for many years to come.

learn Ruby and Rails, NodeJS, AngularJS or EmberJS, and you need some computer science knowledge like Data Structures and Algorithms to help you with interviews.

go to meetups, and work on your github

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