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Comment by ptr | Hacker News Reader

There are a lot of companies that don't primarily do web development, maybe look into that if you know or want to learn Java, C++? Telecom, automotive, finance, games, medicine, industry. These companies need a lot of developers and they're typically much nicer to work at. Better paid, much less stress.

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> Better paid, much less stress.

I wish, honestly. A lot of business/safety critical software is written by developers around the world that are paid less than the average web developer.

All the way up to extreme cases like https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-28/boeing-s-...

Admittedly, that's an extreme case, not the average, but you get my point.

Compared to most industrial automation, flashy and colorful stuff is overrated and overpaid.

How's the C++ career path? I'm considering it. Always liked C and more low level stuff. I'm just wondering if C++ will be worth the investment 10 years from now or are languages like Go/Rust killing it. I want something stable where my experience will compound nicely over the years.

I personally can't see a career in a particular programming language. There are so many programing languages out there. Wouldn't it be better to get expert like knowledge in some specific area. For example becoming an expert in distributed systems for the automotive industry. You would then participate in design and implementation of a distributed system. I think this would narrow down the needed knowledge, however life long learning is still needed.

This, try to learn languages from different areas. You don’t really have to become an expert in a domain either, knowing C++, Java and basic software engineering will get you into a lot of places.

I think C++ is the thing for me... we will see how it goes. Java is plan b.

Good luck! Try not to get stuck on extreme details; C++ is a very rich language but most people that work with it have pretty rudimentary knowledge, you’d be surprised.

Thank you! Can u explain further your point on learning a language from different angles? Or in general what is your strategy to remain relevant in tech?

There are so many languages but C is still out there and so many young people don't wanna touch it. As for the domain knowledge it transfers quite well I think. If u did some c++ for a database how bad does your knowledge decay if you go to the auto industry? I don't wanna be argumentative very happy to be corrected here I really want feedback on this decision.

Maybe we misunderstood us here a bit :-) I didn't mean that your C++ skills are decaying when you switch to automotive industry but before that you we're a C++ database developer. My thought was that instead of learning a particular programming language, become an expert in e.g. database systems. Maybe I can give you some personal information about stability of C++. Answer: in my opinion it depends on the industry. We are writing software in C++ for machines which will be used for the next 20 years. In our case, knowing C++ very well is a plus because our systems have to live long. For example some time ago we needed a software developer who has knowledge in C and assembly for the C51 microcontroller architecture for some old human machine interface. Nevertheless we're evaluating Rust for new projects. As you can see in my industry C++ knowledge is very stable but be prepared to learn a new language like Rust.

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