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Ask HN: Is long-term use of an unpopular programming language bad?

3 points by jupiter90000 ↗ HN
Say I worked for several years building cool stuff at a job, but only mostly used F#, OCaml, Clojure or something. Will future employers think I would be a 'bad hire' because I haven't been coding in more standard languages like C# and Java that they might be using? I ask because I often see job postings that don't say much about software engineering skills in general but more like '5+ years developing production C# apps'. What if someone is a great engineer but happened to work with a different language?

9 comments

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dougdescombaz
There will be a mix of bias and enlightenment. Much like the rest of life. The exact mixture isn't clear.
BoorishBears
It's a culture thing.

In your cliche NET 2.x MS-only Windows-Only enterprise setting they won't look down on it, but they might feel you don't have relevant experience.

In many other places people value developers that have non-mainstream development experience because it shows you're willing to explore as a developer and won't shackle yourself to one solution to problems the business faces.

chatmasta
I would be more concerned that you spent the last X years only using one language, no matter how esoteric it is. If I had to hire someone who has not used the main language(s) in my company's stack, I would prefer someone who spent the last X years working in multiple languages, who should be more likely to learn our language(s) quickly.

From a career perspective, working in one single language seems far more limiting than focusing on some esoteric language(s). I don't even understand how it's possible to spend five years in one language. On a day to day basis I use JavaScript, bash, and python.

Focusing on only C++ or Java or one of the "mainstream" languages seems just as "bad" as focusing on one esoteric language. Try to pick a job where you are exposed to multiple languages/paradigms on a daily basis.

meric
I was extremely worried when I started reading your comment - I've been working on python since I got out of university. Reading the rest of the comment gave me relief - I also used Javascript, PostgreSQL, MySQL, CSS, Sass, Less, React, Angular, bash, Lua, C, GLSL. Phew.
[dead] poopoopoopoo
As a "C#" developer you might use Powershell, SQL, JS, Typescript and other "ancillary" languages to get the job done but you still might think of yourself as a single language programmer.
auganov
You could always spin Clojure as JVM experience, F# as .NET etc.
dmarlow
To some extent. I think I value what you've done with said tools more than the tools themselves.
peteevans
I'd say yes and no. Given that way that a lot of HR departments just seem to run a keyword search for jobs and this often hits languages. This can work against you. If the cool stuff is relevant then that will be good once you get past the HR, if not it's cool anyway. However, unpopular languages can work in your favour when the number of developers drop or the languages become more popular, for instance Cobol was suddenly a goldmine around Y2K and who knows where current tech will go. However, getting extra languages under your belt is a good thing both for employability and learning new programming paradigms.