Friday, July 3, 2009

"Dangerous" Choices

Most of the material I've read lately about being successfully in the IT industry have all suggested moving away from the safer choices (Java, C#, Windows, etc.) and moving into the more emergent technologies (Rails, Grails, Mac OS X, Linux, etc). The idea is that picking a technology before it becomes widespread offers a few advantages:
  • You become an expert before others
  • If you take the risk and pick the right technology, the monetary rewards can be high; much higher than normal
  • Most of the alpha geeks are already there, and you want to be working with the best and brightest, don't you? I know I do
Being a expert in a technology field is a great thing to strive for. I also think keeping up with the technology trends and new ideas helps you become a better programmer, even if you don't ever use those technologies at work, because by using different technologies, you're forced to solve problems in new ways.

While some of the emergent technologies have been around a lot longer than they've been on anyone's radar, they have all experienced near explosive growth as of late. Despite the major strides these technologies have made, the job markets remain small. I also have trouble finding fringe jobs that pay as well as the more established offerings. Take Rails or Grails. I think they're both great technologies that have a lot to offer. But looking on Monster or Dice doesn't reveal anything worthwhile from what I can tell. So what's the problem? I think there are a few things at play here.
  • Most of the really good jobs are never advertised
  • The alpha (and beta?) geeks know each other, and are quick to fill positions through word of mouth
  • Most of the cool stuff right now is open source, so the jobs that most people do hear about are with companies that are just getting started or using open source to save money
I don't have issue with the first two points, but personally, I'm not ready to cut my salary in half just to work with some technologies that may or may not work out in the long run. If the only danger to these technologies was long term viability, that would be different. Even taking a 10-20% pay cut would be different. But not being able to find those jobs, and when I do, to take a 40-50% cut is where I have to pause.

Maybe I'm just a Gamma Geek, too far removed to know the right people. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. But maybe the safer choices aren't so bad.

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