Re: Anybody in US using ADA ?

["Marin David Condic" <mcondic.auntie.spam@acm.org>]

To some extent, you're preaching to the choir. I agree that what is really
important is not the language or toolsets you use, but your abilities as an
engineer. But there is the other side of the coin. All professions
specialize to some extent and just as a doctor who specialized in gynocology
might have a hard time switching to proctology and beginning to work in an
entirely new field, so is it true that a programmer who has specialized in
Ada and some Ada toolset might have a bit of work making the transition to
some other language/toolset/problem domain. And even if one dismisses this
as not that big a deal, there's still this nasty problem called "Reality".
Job postings try to look for very specific skills and hiring managers
generally don't want to consider someone unless they match their job
description very closely. The fact that you can adapt and don't think that
this is a big deal doesn't matter because the people making those decisions
*do* think its a big deal. Life is often not fair, eh?

MDC
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Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jast.mil/

Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g

    "I'd trade it all for just a little more"
        --  Charles Montgomery Burns, [4F10]
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<tmoran@acm.org> wrote in message
news:hwwQ9.518530$%m4.144999@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net...
> > Programmers want to have skills that can get them a job somewhere else
if
> > Congress pulls the plug on what they're doing
>   Are there other industries or professions with as narrow apparent skill
> sets?  "Young doctors don't want to learn surgery in case advanced drugs
> make it unnecessary."  "Lawyers don't want to learn criminal law in case
> everybody becomes saintly."  "Civil engineers want to learn only about
> high speed rail, not roads, fearing no more roads will be built in
future."
> Even actors worrying about type casting usually try to diversify, rather
> than getting lots and lots of practice in crowd scenes. :(
>  Q 2: What will all those C++ and Java programmers do when they discover
> you don't innovate by getting a job that let's you use last year's
> innovations, and they have no competitive advantage over Indians or
> Russians at learning last year's innovations.