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Ask HN: What framework/stack should I learn to get myself a job?

4 points by sph130 ↗ HN
I gave it a go at founding a startup. Short story - sales cycle was too long and I've run out of cash even with customers coming in. I need to find work to pay the bills now. I'm a developer at heart - I can code the MEAN stack all day long. But looking at jobs out there I see more need for React, GO etc. I'm going to do a project in another language to hone my skills, I've got java, c#, c++, javascript, python experience. What stack should I pick up to have the best shot at getting a dev gig now? ( I was in IT Management/PM for a while so I only kept up my MEAN stack skills on the side while I was developing my startup application so this is why I am asking about it now. I would prefer to get back into development.

8 comments

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AsyncAwait
MEAN is a good start, you can build on your existing skills and pick up React & React Native, which will also allow you to expand to mobile dev.
sph130
Thanks for the insight - I have seen a number of React postings.
davelnewton
I'm not entirely sure I understand the question.

You already seem to have the buzzwords necessary to land a reasonable position.

sph130
Then maybe it's my resume skills? I'm not getting the initial interviews, but then again it may be because it's around the holidays.
davelnewton
Impossible to say w/o knowing more.

This is a light time for hiring, as you state: lots of people are on vacation.

While people do look for specific buzzwords, the better ones realize that you can teach anybody a framework and it's among the less-important aspects of the hiring process. I see a pretty even mix of Angular vs. React jobs these days. I have neither on my resume (but have been doing React for some time now) and get more requests for Angular than React--but that might also be because it's harder to find Angular devs.

sph130
I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Having worked 11 years in IT in the Fortune 100 Corporate World and then giving a startup a go, I find myself a little like a fish out of water back trying to get this many years being on the other side of interviewing.
davelnewton
In what way does that take you out of the running for jobs, though?

In my experience there's nothing about a startup failure that indicates a candidate isn't suited for a development position.

sph130
I wasn't referring to my startup failure, I was referring to not having interviewed or having done a resume for over 12 years. :D I'll get it done I have confidence in my ability to figure things out.