Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 008 Can I Get a Job in C#? Should I Switch to Java? Is C# In Demand?

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008 Can I Get a Job in C#? Should I Switch to Java? Is C# In Demand? · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Join us each episode as we tackle the questions you are asking about a career in software development, understanding the industry, and new technology.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're just starting out or you want to grow stronger as a developer, this is the place to get your questions answered.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's your host, expert developer and online educator, Tim Corey.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Is C Sharp really the right choice?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Can I make money as a C sharp developer?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: I look at the job market and it seems like this other language has more job openings than C sharp.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Should I switch to that?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: These are all great questions and ones we're going to answer in today's dev question video.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you don't know me, my name is Tim Corey, and my goal is to make learning C sharp easier.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: And to do that, I sometimes take time out to talk through your issues, talk through your questions, and really try and help you move along to the next step.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's what these videos are all about every Thursday.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about is C sharp the right choice?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: I get this question a lot and I totally understand it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because you want to make sure that you are working towards something that's going to pay off.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to get to the top of the C sharp ladder and find out no one cares.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that's definitely not a place you want to be.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: So if you needed to switch, now is probably the time, right?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, here's my thoughts on this topic.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, you can absolutely make money as a C sharp developer.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: You can absolutely get a job.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: I've done it for my for about the past 15 years, 10, 15 years or so.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, however long C sharp's been out.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've been a developer for over two decades, and there's always been opportunities for me.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now, my area does seem to have a lot more C sharp developer jobs than some areas.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: But here's my thoughts on that.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: How many jobs do you need in C sharp?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Do you need five jobs in C sharp?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Do you need ten jobs in C sharp?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: No, you need one job in C sharp.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's really all you need.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: So even if there are three times, five times, a hundred times as many jobs in a different language, you don't need that many jobs.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: You need one job.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, if you have a hundred people competing for one job versus a hundred people competing for 30 jobs, that makes a difference.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: But the reality is that's not usually what happens.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: If there are a hundred jobs, you'll find there's probably 50 to 100 times that many people looking for jobs.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: I just call it give it that ratio.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: But then if you have 10 jobs, you have 50 or 100 times that number.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: So usually it's a comparison slide slider where there's less people looking for the less jobs.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: But that really depends on your area too.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: And this is why this gets so tricky.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you look at your area, you might find there's no C sharp jobs here.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there probably is.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's just that you're overlooking them, you're missing some, you're kind of negating some, and some just aren't advertising where you're looking.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: All right, but there probably are jobs there for you, but maybe it's more of a different language.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: That happens.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: As companies come in that use a certain language, there'll be more jobs for that specific language.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: One of the companies I worked for had, I think, 17 C sharp developers just in that one company, small little company, in one city, one small city.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they even brought more people on, and then they had high turnovers, so they were bringing even more people on.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So they were always looking for C sharp developers.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: It makes it look like there's tons of jobs out there for C sharp developers when it really is just a turnover thing and it's they do need some C sharp developers.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that can be true of any language.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: So be careful how you do that comparison.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: And further, if you say, well, but my area is prominently this other language.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm gonna learn that language.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: In the two years it's gonna take to become a mid-level developer or an advanced level developer, senior developer, those jobs may be totally different.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: They may be something entirely different.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: So don't just base it upon what your area needs right now.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's gonna change.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Also, do you really want to do that?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you love C.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: I love C.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: I love C sharp.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I love how it writes, I love the syntax of it, I like the team that develops it, I like its direction, it's great.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I would not feel the same way about a different language.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: For example, I've written in Java.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Java is very popular.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like Java.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like the JVM, I don't like the infrastructure, I'm not a huge fan of the organization that supports it.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, all of that combined, even if there were more jobs in Java, I don't want to work there.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be more miserable.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not gonna try to get those jobs just because there's more of them.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I need one job.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: So instead, I focus on what am I going to enjoy working with?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because I can get a job in that, and so can you.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, maybe fewer in some areas, there may be more in others, but that's not as big a factor in my mind.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: What's a bigger factor is how skilled you're going to be in that language, and that's the other part of this, is when you first learn a language, typically you focus on the shiny bits, the things that really make it pop, the things that are unique or or neat or fun.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: For example, oftentimes I hear people say, I'm just learning C sharp.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Can you teach me how to do ASP.net MVC?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's nearer the end of the path than the beginning of the path.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I get it, the MVC is a shiny bit.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or Xamarin.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Let's learn Xamarin.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: I want to learn Xamarin.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know C sharp yet?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's my first day, so not really.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's the end of the path.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to start in the beginning of the path.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I get it, it's a shiny bit.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So when you first start off, even those beginning things are gonna be shiny bits.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be things that are interesting and fun, and you write a hello world application in a console application, and you're like, I made something work, that's cool.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then you start diving into it and starting to learn the syntax, and it's gonna get a little harder, and it's gonna get a little slower, and you're not gonna have as many ooh aha moments, you're gonna have more of the one more thing I just learned, put it on the pile with everything else I've learned moments.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then what's gonna happen is it's gonna start feeling discouraging.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: And you you decide to you know take a break from it, and you look at, you know, you you Google things or you look at blog posts or whatever, and you see there's a shiny bit over there, and it's a different language, and you know what, you start getting kind of excited.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: That language is pretty cool.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: I like that shiny bit, and so you start feeling discouraged where you're at, and you start feeling like that over there is pretty cool, and so it draws you to that other language.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: The problem is that shiny bit, it's gonna wear off, and you're gonna start going, oh, I gotta learn one more thing, throw it in the pile, and you're gonna look up and realize, oh, there's a shiny bit over there.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: And what happens is you bounce around from language to language, from technology to technology, and you never really learn any of them because you're always trying to look for the better one.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: You have to stop that cycle.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: You have to go deeper in one.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Not three, not five, not even two.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: One.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I encourage you, even if you want to be a web developer in C sharp, if you're just starting out with C sharp, learn C sharp.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Not the user interface, not MVC, not Blazor, not Razor Pages, not API.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Learn C sharp.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: That powers all of that.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: But start there.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Start a console app.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not the web, it'll get you there eventually.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: You might even do some desktop application work.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're building up your skills in C sharp.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: The user interface isn't nearly as important as your skills in C sharp.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you build up.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna take some hard work, it's gonna take some time, it's gonna take some effort.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna miss out on some shiny bits in other spots.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: But if you focus and if you build yourself up, build your skills up, then you will get there, you will succeed, and you will find employment.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: It may be difficult, you may be turned down a lot, it may not be the expectation you have of I learn, I get a good paying job.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's not quite like that in any language, but you will get there.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you need help with that, I do have a path video where I talk about the path of learning C sharp.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the way to go through that path.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I I talk through the the uh the paid path or the easy path where I've kind of done it for you.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've laid out all the videos, I've laid out all the training, and I take you through from start to finish.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's the the complete foundation C sharp course series.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And from that, I start you at the very beginning and I work you all the way through in a logical manner to the very end, which I even talk about okay, what's next?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Here's your career information, here's how to you know get a job, here's how to get work experience, here's how to do when you start a job, those kind of things.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: I go all the way through that so you're fully prepared.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of the the easy way, but it's also the paid way.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's not it's not free.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: But in that video, I also talk about what if you don't want to spend money?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you don't want to spend money, you're gonna spend time, and that's okay, that's great.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I do what I do to help you, even if that means you have to do it for free.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: I get it.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: I I want you to be able to do it for free, and so I provide a way to use the structure of the course that I sell, use that structure to do it for free and have to put those pieces together on your own.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: It is gonna mean you have to put in more time.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: You're paying with your time instead of your money.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: We all have time, we don't all have the same amount of money.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, little sidetrack there, but I do want you to see there is a path to go down.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: It is not just a little sprint, it's a marathon.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: But if you go down that path, if you run the entire race at the end, you will be able to find employment.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: There are jobs out there for C sharp developers.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: You're not always gonna get a job right away, and that's gonna be true no matter what language you choose, no matter what framework you use, because it's sometimes difficult to get a job.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: I did a video on talking about how to get a job with C sharp.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Check that out in the dev questions series.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're you're struggling, you still have a path to go down to go even further and deeper.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And there are ways to elevate your standing to be better off when it comes to getting hired.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: But as far as C sharp jobs out there, there are a lot.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, one of the things that is um often confusing to people is while I do offer consulting services, I tell about 95% of people no.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: They offer to pay me money, and I tell them I don't have time.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a list of people that if I needed more money, I could spend my time and consult with them, but I just don't have the time.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of developer jobs or developer positions out there that need to be filled.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to find the right person to put in that role, but there are roles out there for people like you.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so my encouragement is don't keep starting over.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Don't keep looking at the shiny bit and saying, let's start over in a different language.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start over in something new.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Focus, do the hard work, put in the effort, that will launch you further faster than if you keep bouncing around.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because at that point, you're in it for the entertainment.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: You may not think so, but that's really what it is.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's entertaining you.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you'd probably be better off watching Netflix, okay?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy yourself and your entertainment, your downtime.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: When it comes to work and to uh preparing for work, you gotta focus and do the hard work, okay?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I encourage you to do.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Focus on doing one language.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be C sharp.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying C sharp is the only language to do.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: There are other languages out there that are great.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: But when you pick one, stick with it all the way through.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: There are jobs out there for almost any language you choose, probably any language.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Some are better than others.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: I say C sharp is nearer the top than the bottom, for sure.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And C sharp is actually growing because of.NET Core and because of.NET 5 and 6 coming out with Maui.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of new opportunities coming out with.NET.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So there's there are opportunities.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's a matter of are you willing to put in the effort to become a good C sharp developer?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: All right?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you have more questions, if you think through and find other questions you have about development, leave them down in the comments below.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'll add them to the suggestion list, and hopefully we can cover your topics soon.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for watching, and as always, I am Tim Corey.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Tim is committed to making it easier for you to become a developer.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you would like to help make more content like this possible, please like, subscribe, rate, and share Dev Questions.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can also send your questions to questions at IamTimcorey.com.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember, you are too smart and your time too valuable to waste it making all the mistakes Tim did.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to imtimcore.com and enroll in a course.