06-17-2009, 07:55 PM
Well, I know some of you out there are developers in one form or the other, and I kind of in a bit of a transitional predicament. I worked my first job out of college, and kicked ass, been there 2 years, and I am ready to move on to a new project within the company. Two opportunities have presented themselves to me, and I am not sure which way to go. I am keeping these descriptions as vague as the job postings that I originally applied to, just so you get an idea.
My background: java app programming, scripting, build systems, and i was a math/comp sci major at JMU
job 1) Software development for super computers. This job would mean I would be programming in FORTRAN and C. From the gist of it I got, we'd write math libraries, and various other things that are platform specific to the SC it runs on. This job would be on a small team, and acts more as an R&D lab for my company, and gets "contracted out" to analyze and optimize code from other programs. They actually asked me about my calculus and algebra proficiency in this job interview, so no doubt it would be awesome to actually use my education for something.
Job 2) Typical enterprise web application developer. This would be doing backend programming for a web app, using all these newer frameworks and java shit I don't know much about. I have only ever done java app programming, nothing enterprise. This would be awesome to finally get on one of these for that experience, since everything these days is web based, albeit using whatever framework is the flavor of the week. This is totally in java, and everybody uses java, so it's probably really transferrable.
So, what would you do? Job 1 is probably less stable, but when else would I ever be able to work on a project like this? Isn't it more impressive to put on your resume that you built and optimized code to run on super computers? The downside is, theres not that many places to do this kind of job!. Job 2's obvious advantage is that every java shop i ever go to would be doing this, most likely. I am kind of leaning towards job 1, because I figure I am still young, and won't get pigeonholed, even if my java skills slip, because I figure if you can learn the job 1 type of development, you can learn anything, and hopefully the person interviewing you would realize that.
My background: java app programming, scripting, build systems, and i was a math/comp sci major at JMU
job 1) Software development for super computers. This job would mean I would be programming in FORTRAN and C. From the gist of it I got, we'd write math libraries, and various other things that are platform specific to the SC it runs on. This job would be on a small team, and acts more as an R&D lab for my company, and gets "contracted out" to analyze and optimize code from other programs. They actually asked me about my calculus and algebra proficiency in this job interview, so no doubt it would be awesome to actually use my education for something.
Job 2) Typical enterprise web application developer. This would be doing backend programming for a web app, using all these newer frameworks and java shit I don't know much about. I have only ever done java app programming, nothing enterprise. This would be awesome to finally get on one of these for that experience, since everything these days is web based, albeit using whatever framework is the flavor of the week. This is totally in java, and everybody uses java, so it's probably really transferrable.
So, what would you do? Job 1 is probably less stable, but when else would I ever be able to work on a project like this? Isn't it more impressive to put on your resume that you built and optimized code to run on super computers? The downside is, theres not that many places to do this kind of job!. Job 2's obvious advantage is that every java shop i ever go to would be doing this, most likely. I am kind of leaning towards job 1, because I figure I am still young, and won't get pigeonholed, even if my java skills slip, because I figure if you can learn the job 1 type of development, you can learn anything, and hopefully the person interviewing you would realize that.
2013 Cadillac ATS....¶▅c●▄███████||▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅||█~ ::~ :~ :►
2008 Chevy Malibu LT....▄██ ▲ █ █ ██▅▄▃▂
1986 Monte Carlo SS. ...███▲▲ █ █ ███████
1999 F250 SuperDuty...███████████████████►
1971 Monte Carlo SC ...◥☼▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙☼◤
2008 Chevy Malibu LT....▄██ ▲ █ █ ██▅▄▃▂
1986 Monte Carlo SS. ...███▲▲ █ █ ███████
1999 F250 SuperDuty...███████████████████►
1971 Monte Carlo SC ...◥☼▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙☼◤