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Comment by mettamage | Hacker News Reader

Ha! The Netherlands would like to have a word with you. All non big tech companies are like "Oh, you don't have Java experience? That's okay, we know you have talent and are a capable individual... NEXT"

Source: my experience

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And? You put in your cv you know Java, and solved. I mean, if you have experience with a few mainstream languages, it should be no problem to handle yet another one. I have done this several times. Yes, I lie in my cv, but that doesn’t mean I cannot work with yet another unknown programming language and be productive after a few weeks. More often than not, the real issue is to get to know the business logic in a new job, that may take a few months (more than enough time to get up to speed with a new language).

Notice I said “mainstream” languages. This means stuff like Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, Go, TS, etc. Now, stuff like Lisp, Haskell, Clojure, ok, that’s different enough.

What are you going to say in an interview when they ask you to describe your Java experience?

I would have no problem taking on people with excellent c++ or c# experience for a longer term role if they show they are committed to spending time improving their java skills. If you are hiring for a very short assignment then obviously you're going to want the specific skills you're hiring for.

Had a guy with c++ experience for C# job - never again. Yes it is generalization but he messed up basically half a year of company work.

If in the interview for C# or Java someone doesn’t write idiomatic C# or Java - but writes his c/c++ „for loops” it won’t work.

Management went over to hire that guy because we needed a developer and he was living close to the office… Worst hire ever - even a guy who we hired remotely that seemed to cheat because he did nothing or not much was waaay better because after 2 months we fired him and he did not break anything and did not make other team mates angry besides management.

I guess the problem was more that the guy was a jerk or not willing to learn. I do remember a C++ guy who would only ever do stuff in text files refusing to use a database which was ok up to a point, until it wasn't. What I meant was that someone who has the competency to understand complex C/C++ will not struggle to learn to work well with Java/C#

But that's the problem. With big corporations you probably wouldn't be the one deciding who to hire. It will be some HR person who doesn't know what qualities are important. They just Ctrl+f through the stack of CV's looking how often keyword 'x' occurs.

But that is The Netherlands- good luck buying a flat or house. Also good luck getting an employee because most people on normal salaries cannot afford to rent something decent that is not 2 hours commute time. While OV is quite nice in NL, trains ar e still expensive and also companies pay for travel costs but not for your time between home and office.

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