Should Knowing One .NET Language Be Enough To Land a Job That Uses Another?

Written on 1:06 PM by Robert

This is a followup to my previous topic about Visual BASIC, since I wanted to clarify a few things and expand upon that discussion.

Visual BASIC is not the same a Visual BASIC .NET.  For one, The .NET Framework allows the VB program (with major modifications) to interface with web capabilities that VB6 could never do.  A VB6 programmer will have some minor learning curve migrating his applications over to VB .NET (Winforms), but will quickly adapt to the new syntax changes.  I was one of those people who became used to VB .NET rather quickly without formal training.  Sure, I had to Google for a few solutions, but this is expected when working with a relatively new language.

Most graduates of a Computer Science program are adept at using C++ in more than one of their courses, whether it be in a Windows or a Unix environment (or both, in my case).  When working in the real world, these college graduates will gravitate towards languages that are similar in syntax - like C#, Java, and Javascript.  Obviously, these languages are not the same, otherwise we wouldn't have different names for them!  I believe there are two reasons these languages are so popular.  Most people are familiar with C++ and find it easy to work with similar languages.  The other reason is that Windows itself is written in C++, which is a subliminal reason to stick to what works.

I have found, in my experience, that there was nothing I couldn't accomplish using VB .NET that was asked of me to do.  There may be advantages to using C#, but I personally wouldn't know.  On that path of thinking, recruiters should realize that if someone is familiar with C++, then they can easily grasp C# and Java.  Someone familiar with VB .NET can also easily grasp C# and Java if they have a college degree in Computer Science.  It seems unfair that those who chose to start their career using VB and VB .NET have a harder time to achieve a C# position if they have never had any previous professional experience using it.


Any thoughts?

Posted in career,computers,jobs,programming