JavaScript is a good goal... but not because there's a lack of C# viability.
But back in 2008 there were also good paying jobs for good C and C++ developers. But when I looked at the direction that the local industry was going, I could see that the age of the bit twiddler was dying locally and there were more jobs for “enterprise developers”.
I had a choice between making $20K more as a senior C++ developer or $7K more as a mid level C# developer. I took the latter even though I had 12 years (staying at one company way too long) of development experience.
So that’s what I concentrated on for the next 9 years - the Microsoft stack.
Late last year, I was the dev lead for a decent size company with a small IT department. I was looking to change jobs and once again I saw the writing on the wall. There were a few jobs willing to pay what I wanted writing C# but lots of companies wanted Node/React/React Native.
This time, once again I was offered $15K more as an architect leading a team of 10+ developers writing apps in C# on Windows servers, running Sql server and I had another job offer as a “senior developer” at a smaller company making only $5K more but would get a chance to not only fill in some technical gaps on my end - front end coding with React and back end with Node. I would also get to lead initiatives to make the company more “cloud native” and to restructure the architecture for high availability, scalability, etc. and help build a dev ops culture. But with no official reports (that’s a good thing).
Looking ahead three years, I knew what the better choice would be for my career. Sure there is money now for C# developers but that’s not where the market is going.
But honestly, the salaries for developers and even architects who want to stay mostly hands on and don’t want to go into management outside of Silicon Valley/NYC is stagnating. I realized from my last job that the real money is working for consulting companies with titles like “Implementation architects” and “Digital transformation consultants” who help companies move to the “fourth level of the cloud maturity model”. Yes typing that left a bad taste in my mouth.
So that’s really the game plan - but to speak to all levels of the organization, I need a “more modern tech stack” as one of the recruiters told me.
My decision is real simple... Microsoft has one thing most of those stacks don't: Longevity.
You can knock C# as being "old" and not as "shiny" as Node/React/React Native/Angular/etc... but C# has been stable for a long time and it isn't going anywhere.
I can't say the same for JavaScript.
> Yes typing that left a bad taste
I don't know if that would change with C#, C++ or JavaScript - you are bound to hit a ceiling as a "developer" unless you move into engineering/architecture/management/bullshit (but I repeat myself)
> need a more modern tech stack
I'm learning JavaScript alongside C# (but I'm definitely a .Net Developer) for that reason.
I personally have less faith that those techs will be as predominant in 20 years though... I think it's a crapshoot all around - things are different from 5 years ago and C# and JavaScript will be COBOL in 20 years - alive but not really...
We'll be working in mines for our robot overlords who can program themselves at that point.
But seriously... I have more faith that Microsoft will be consistent and supportive of technology than Google or Apple - Google has dropped more technology than anyone and Apple is still a 1 trick pony. Facebook is pissing people off and companies like Amazon are like Blackberry and Palm - even the giants die eventually.
Not sure if that makes sense... but rambling aside, you can pick a channel - C#, Java, JavaScript, etc - and have a successful career as long as you are able to learn the bigger picture and move if/when the writing is on the wall.
JavaScript has been around longer than C#.
But if you want to compare how long framework of the week has been around, Microsoft frameworks have been anything but stable - Linq2Sql, Webforms, WCF, Windows Forms have all but been abandoned and the .Net Core versions of WebApi, MVC, and EF are mostly different from their older versions.
But seriously... I have more faith that Microsoft will be consistent and supportive of technology than Google or Apple
There is this story of VB6 and Classic ASP...
And all of the abandoned mobile efforts. MS abandoned Windows CE/Windows Mobile in 2008 when there were still millions of devices running specialized vertical market apps using it.
I don't know if that would change with C#, C++ or JavaScript - you are bound to hit a ceiling as a "developer" unless you move into engineering/architecture/management/bullshit (but I repeat myself)
Well, 10 years later, I can’t find any C/C+* jobs in my local market making $60K+ more what I was making back then. Honestly there aren’t too many C# jobs that are making 60K+ what I was making back then in my local market. I was able to negotiate a slightly higher than median salary because of my architect/Devops/AWS skills. There were plenty of jobs for the JS/Node/React/Docker skillset making what I make now - but I wasn’t qualified for them.
The ceiling for .Net developers is lower than that of the Javascript $cool_kids_stack.
But yes, it’s all about knowing where to jump on and off the hype cycle.
The larger companies where C# is more popular aren’t as willing to throw money at developers and honestly they don’t have to. C# developers are a dime a dozen.
