Career in VB.Net ?

[Tinbeard]

Not really a coding question but a vb.net question all the same

I'm the wrong side of 30 and I've been programming in different languages for about 20 years, only as a hobby though. I'm just wondering what the employment / career prospects are for a VB.Net programmer, I realise that experience will play a bit part but do things like microsoft certifications play a big role too ?

The other option is starting up on my own, is this really viable ?

Note to Mods, please delete/move this thread if it's not in keeping with the forum.

[sevenhalo]

Never too late to start, but expect entry level salaries.

As for starting up on your own... I highly discourage this. Atleast not initially. Real world experience is a must.
Certifications are nice, but even they require (as far as MSs' go) 2+ years real world experience. From what I've gathered, they test applied knowledge. Learning how to do it is only half the battle.

Whichever way you go, good luck to you.

[kleinma]

Also when you work for a company you generally have access to resources otherwise unattainable if you were on your own.

For example, a good software company will have an MSDN subscription of some sort to give you access to the applications you need for testing. Also a whole bunch of PCs at your disposal to run Windows 98-2003 on, as it is very common for someone to write an app that runs great on their machine, and craps its pants on another. (VMWare or virtual PC is good emulation software than can cut costs by running many OS on 1 PC, but you still need valid OS licenses, even if its for testing, which is where MSDN subscription comes in handy).

Also when you work for a company, you aren't generally in charge of EVERYTHING, like you might write the app, but not have to make the installer, or graphics, etc.... (even though I have to do it all at my job )

[imadthemad]

i will be straight with you
i am 17
i have been programming since 11
vb6 for 4 years and the rest vb.net 2002-2003-vb2005

when i switched to .net EVERYTHING came naturally

all the classes were there for me AND i could still use API

i admit that i am not certified, but from everything i learnt, and i am not gloating, i feel i can already fit in as a vb.net programmer
sometimes i read some of the freelance job proposals on different sites and i make a project just to see if i can make it
recently i made an mms component that was asked for but i didnt sell it

in answer to your question, yes and yes. I think you should start vb.net and unless you are a slow learner i think you can learn on your own more than what you can pay people to teach you.

I believe that i mastered enough programming already and i am not in college yet, and i have never been taught nor spoonfed by anyone. In fact, i taught my own school IT Teacher how to use vb when they first introduced it into our school curriculum couple of years ago. And every year he still cuts me out of some classes to ask me the same questions over and over again.

My point is, you dont really know the language unless you WILLINGLY learn it on your own.

[demon.KILER]

hey I got a question too ........ is it easy or hard to get a job as a .net devolper (vb.net , c#.net , c++.net , j#.net(If i master all this) ... (they all unique so it should be easy for me to master in atleast 2

[sevenhalo]

Not hard at all. I posted by resume on just dice.com about 3 weeks ago. I was presented to about 6 different companies (there were more, but that's the ones i picked). Within 2 weeks, I had a new job.

Deffinitely better money for C# developers as opposed to vb.net. Also, there's more opportunity. Regardless, still plenty of VB.Net positions avaliable.

[kleinma]

Right now its good if you know VB6 and VB.NET, because a lot of jobs out there are asking for people to migrate VB6 apps over to .NET 2003 or 2005.

While if you are good at .NET, you should be able to find your way around the VB6 IDE and source code, it helps if you have previous experience programming in VB6

[mendhak]

Not really a coding question but a vb.net question all the same

I'm the wrong side of 30 and I've been programming in different languages for about 20 years, only as a hobby though. I'm just wondering what the employment / career prospects are for a VB.Net programmer, I realise that experience will play a bit part but do things like microsoft certifications play a big role too ?

The other option is starting up on my own, is this really viable ?

Note to Mods, please delete/move this thread if it's not in keeping with the forum.

Before I answer, what languages have you been working with these past 20 years? What do you like working on? What are your favorite languages?

[Tinbeard]

Before I answer, what languages have you been working with these past 20 years? What do you like working on? What are your favorite languages?

Well to be honest it would be easier to name the ones I haven't had a go at

...the one I began with was of course BASIC but I moved on pretty quicky to assembly language on the Amiga using Devpac which I found to be very intresting and I wrote quite a few 'decent' programs with it over the years.

More recently i've done perl but really came into .net because I wrote a database driven website for a friend who had his site hosted on an MS server so I decided to use asp.net.

That was a couple of years ago and since then I've become hooked on vb.net, I find very capable and well structured and and I enjoy coding in it so I'm thinking about maybe getting into it professionally.

I find it fairly easy to get to grips with but have no 'real world' experience with it, I'm currently doing the MS certification for 1.1 with a view to upgrading this to 2.0, but I suppose the question is am I being realistic in thinking that someone 30+ with no official programming background and an MS certification would be able to get a job.

I have my doubts but then again I'm not in the industry so I'm just speculating

[kleinma]

Without real world experience, certs are probably the next best thing that would tell an employer "I know what I am doing". That along with perhaps creating a showcase of application and websites that you have made, that can be used to demonstrate your talent.