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Ask HN: Should I go for higher pay, older technology job offer?

5 points by klein0891 ↗ HN
Current job - latest technology (.NET 4.0), lower pay, long commute, nice team. New job offer - short term project .NET 2.0, higher pay, short commute, team lead seemed to be nice. Any thoughts?

9 comments

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vrkr
Think long term, would you still have fun with older tech in 2 years?
klein0891
Probably not but it is a short term project (6+ months). I am skeptical if it would place a dent on my resume if I went to an older technology. It would be much harder convincing my next prospective employer. Wouldn't it?
fredsanford
Yes. I am a C++ developer with about 20 years of experience with C and C++ plus various and sundry other languages and environments...

In 2004 or so I took what was going to be a short term job (exactly the situation you describe, minus C#/.Net) using a 10 year old Borland environment (BC++ 4.52 and 5.0). I ended up staying there about 18 months.

I have not had another C++ job yet and it's not due to lack of effort in finding a job. I'm very friendly with a few of the recruiters in the area and several of them have told me companies are scared of me because my recent experience was "old" (paraphrased). My resume was otherwise pretty current, Boost, Embedded Linux (with a current GCC), recent MSVC C++ etc.

I'd say stick with the newest stuff you can find unless the commute is a real killer.

tocomment
Would the new company be open to using newer technologies in the future, or at least in house?

I'd say go with the new job since change is good, and commutes are a killer.

klein0891
Hah. I know dude, I hate commutes. Well, they "say" they will eventually move to the latest framework. I have my doubts.
thepumpkin1979
I did that move many times in my 8 years in the enterprise field(I hold MCP, MCAD, MCTS), I won't be surprised if you have to work with more than just an old version of .NET. The PC market is full of legacy stuff, you go back to work with those .NET2.0-ish people and you end up by dealing with VBScript, COM+, ASP, VB6 and stuff like that. I personally think that you will not be entirely happy in an enterprise environment, so I would work with other more interesting technologies in my free time.

Also, for personal experience, take in count that companies working with old technologies rarely want to sponsor certifications for newer version of the platform(forget about C# 5 free exam vouchers) since their ".NET 2.0" infrastructure is working "just fine".

klein0891
Very true. I know that is the killer part, I used to work with a company which struggled to move from 1.1 framework to 2.0 framework when MSFT released 3.5.
yen223
I am currently working on factory automation software running on the 1.1 framework...in Windows 2000.
shrughes
The age of the technology is not the same thing as the quality of the infrastructure. I wouldn't judge on that regard. However, the upgrade from .NET 2.0 is not difficult, in sane situations, so there's a question of what's going on there.