Employers recommend studying the broad theoretical base in IT, and treating languages and technologies as tools – if necessary for a specific project, then figure it out; if not, do not waste time.
Don’t try to guess the popular language. It is impossible to predict the development of technology for various reasons. The developers’ preferences are influenced by the technical or commercial effectiveness of the language—the presence of the state in the IT sector and disagreements between large corporations.
So, Google managers, due to friction with Oracle over the use of Java, made their choice in favor of Kotlin and included it in Android Studio 3.0 – the official development tool for the Android operating system.
Avoid outdated or trendy. If you decide to learn a language, check its relevance – maybe it is gradually being replaced by a more promising technology.
“Instead of Objective-C for iOS programming, you should look at Swift. Erlang can be added to the same category. There are also many different JVM languages , such as JRuby, Jython, and JLog, which I would not waste time on.”
At the beginning of the journey, Nikolai Sokornov, director of the software development department at Reksoft, advises not to chase fashionable languages like Go or Rust but to focus on a time-tested language: learn Java for the back-end and JavaScript for the front-end.
When choosing a language to learn, you need to look not only at employers’ demands but also at the overall situation in the labor market. So, Dmitry Rogov claims that overheating is now noticeable in Java. True, only at the level of novice applicants: “We are seeing an overabundance of offers, graduates of courses and self-taught people come to interviews. They do not meet the demands of employers and their salary expectations.”
Don’t limit yourself to one language. It is necessary to take into account not only the demands of the market but also your interest. Finding a job is not difficult if you do not just know the language but also understand the essence of technology.
“Language determines thinking. By choosing JavaScript at the start, you make it difficult for yourself to understand the back end. When developing in C++, you don’t feel the ease of processing hundreds of HTTP REST requests in parallel. Once you pick one topic and get comfortable with it, look at other technologies.”
How To Choose A Programming Language
- Find out what salaries are offered to developers in various languages.
- Look at how much the language is in demand among employers: specialists in rare languages can be paid more, but finding a job is also more challenging.
- Weed out ancient languages that have already been replaced.
- See how big the community of the selected language is. In the long run, it will be easier for you to find answers to complex questions.
- Learn what interests you, and don’t limit yourself to one language.
