Hi Herouth,
Herouth Maoz wrote:
Since Django is racing towards the 1.0 release (currently in
0.97-pre), you'll be getting in to in on this project at the best of
time: a killer framework that dwarfs any thing else around in the
field (save maybe to Ruby on Rails), which is already productive but
still the best kept secret of the geeks. Sort of Linux in 2.2 days :-)
If I'd have to bet my career on something in the web area or even
general application development right now, Django would be it.
Do you think that 6-7 months from now, I'll be able to open the career
supplement of a newspaper, or Job-net, or apply to one of the assignment
agencies, and find jobs where the skill set required says "Django"?
If that's how you think about planning your career, you have much bigger
problems then which technology to learn. I'm not trying to be rude, I am
trying to make a point - you're thinking about this in the completely
wrong way. Let me prove it to you:
Do the following experiment with me (I mean REALLY do it, don't just
read this!):
Open the career supplement of a newspaper or that awful Job-net site and
start counting positions for, I don't know, security guards, the kind
that earns sub minimum wage by being a human bomb shield at a
supermarket. How many are there? well, a lot right?
Now look for open positions of CEO, CTO or CFO for companies. How many
are there? I'd be dammed if you could find more then 2, probably none.
Of course, CxO level jobs are rare just like the people who have qualify
for them and they don't usually get published in those sections in the
newspapers or Job-net, right? (actually there are sections in different
papers for these too, like Globes, but even there they are quite few).
Here's the million dollar question that should REALLY bake your noodle
right now: If you were someone with amazingly excellent CxO credentials,
versus being someone with amazingly excellent security guard
credentials, which job would be easier for you to land?
Security guards are cogs. Excellence simply doesn't matter and so it
wont help you. CxO on the other hand are very rare. Excellence is
everything - you wont need go looking for a job, the head hunter will
come looking for you.
Yes, I took the very ends of the spectrum to make a point, but there's
a lesson here. And if you've understood anything I was trying to get
through, I can now answer your question:
Luckily for you, you will not find Django listed in job credentials in
the papers in next 6 months, probably not in the next 2 years.
BUT, if you play your cards just right and take advantage of being able
to be an expert in Django before it's huge and everyone know about it
(and it will be) right from the beginning by being involved in building
both the frame work and the first commercial users of it, you will have
attained the position of not ever needing to look for a job again -
you'll simply have to choose from the opportunities presented to you.
I
seriously doubt that. Currently, the web market in Israel is almost
exclusively controlled by ASP.Net, even finding a PHP job (where PHP is
at version 5 and has been in the commercial market for well over seven
years) is difficult. I don't think that the marketplace will be
demanding workers in any technology which is currently pre-release for
at least 2 years, and the Israeli market - who knows. Do you have
compelling arguments to the contrary?
The market for interchangeable web site programmers is indeed controlled
by ASP.Net drones. If you plan to be an interchangeable cog that should
certainly be the technology to follow.
If, however, you want be in a position to get the jobs that *aren't*
listed in any paper or web site, to be bogged down by head hunters
calling very politely every six month on the clock just to check in if
you happen to fancy hearing about a new job opening and being able to
pick and choose jobs because you are a rare and irreplaceable source of
knowledge about a useful technology that is used by only the few biggest
corporations and most sophisticated and cutting edge start-ups , then by
all means do consider Django and Python.
And BTW: kernel programmers aren't going to become cogs any time soon,
but they aren't as rare as they once were too and it will only get worse
(or better, depends were you stand). I believe now is NOT the best
time time to go into this technology. Not a problem if you really like
it because after all, kernel hacking is not web programming, but don't
do it just for the sake of looking being rare.
Anyway, if I have to go looking for a new job, it's really time for a
change for me, and I don't want to miss this opportunity. If it's
shifting bits around that lands me in a safe and interesting job, I am
not afraid of it. I've been shifting bits when I was 14 years old and
had a 99-byte emulator on a game console to play around with... ;)
I never doubted for a minute that you have the ability to do anything
you set you mind to do. On the contrary - I think you are aiming too low.
To make sure it is clear: what I wrote here is 100% serious. I might be
wrong with Django and Python. I am not wrong about being rare.
And yes, it takes guts to go chase some crazy technology that no one but
a couple of geek friends heard about written in a language that isn't
even mentioned in job ads. It will also take a lot of hard work to get
good enough to be The expert in this. It's not easy, but it's worth it.
On a more personal note, I took a similar path with a different
technology in somewhat similar stage more then 10 years ago and I assure
you it's worth it.
Good Luck,
Gilad
PS. Maybe I need to give a "Career Planning for Geeks or How to become a
part of an (almost) extinct race for fun and profit" lecture at
{Haif|Tel|??}ux. Is anyone interested?
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