Opinions please - is C experience a good thing?

[JoeDavola]

Hi, I'm new to this forum.

I have been offered a job with a company which would involve programming mainly in C. It seems like a good company and the pay is better than my current job but my only worry is that I would be programming in a language that no one else seems to use nowadays - this isn't 'embedded' software as such, but the systems that it runs on means that C must be used.

I graduated last summer and have been using C++ for the last 8 months - whichever company I move to next, if I do move, I intend to stay at for a while, and I'm just worried that if my only in depth experience after 3 years is in C, I might find it difficult to get jobs elsewhere, since everyone else seems to want Java/C++/.NET people.

Opinions?

[TkTech]

If you know C or CPP, your pretty much set. Java has a near identical syntax to cpp, and after learning C, CPP isn't very hard to catch up on, with most of the differences being in templating, operator overloaders, and classes. A hint though, stay away from languages like .Net. While powerful and useful in their own way, single platform languages like that aren't very usefull. For example, in the game market, companies are looking more and more for games that can be compiled ( with only minor changes ) for the growing Mac gameing market, and still support windows.

[JoeDavola]

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

Surprising that you say stay away from .NET, since there seems to be alot of jobs in that area at the moment.

I would agree with you that if I were to get good at a low level language like C I could probably pick up Java/.Net easily, but my worry is that companies won't see it like that; if I have say 3 years C experience and they work in Java/.NET they won't look twice at me.

[WingedPanther]

I know a guy I taught with who had a lot of experience in C, developing device drivers. I suspect that with C experience you will find a large number of possibilities open up. In addition, if you can program something in C, then you can program it in any other language. Knowing both C and C++ would mean you are familiar with all the major programming paradigms. I don't see how you could lose.

[JoeDavola]

I see what you are saying. And you're probably right.

I just don't think employers will feel the same, over the guy who did Java/.NET for 3 years or whatever (regardless of whether C is more difficult than them). The reason I say Java/.NET is that this is where the vast vast majority of jobs appear to be.

[WingedPanther]

My background is in C, C++, Java, Pascal. I currently work as a programmer in VBScript, Delphi, ColdFusion, SQL, and whatever else has slipped in. My value was not in the languages, but in the skills. With solid documentation you can pick up a new language with minimal difficulty. I find that C/C++/Java have taught me all the major paradigms, so that I don't need to stress over HOW to program, just over the syntax.

[TkTech]

^ Exactly. Most languages follow a C-like syntax. CPP introduces you to object-orientated languages. All falls in after that with a little bit of reading.