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I'm a senior level Delphi developer looking for move into either C# or possibly Java roles. I have around 8 years of development experience of which pretty much all of it is in Delphi, I have very little commercial experience in C# and no commercial experience in Java. I have about 6 months worth of academic experience in both Java and C# from some University papers I took a 4 years ago and use these languages for hobby projects, so I know the languages I just don't have the commercial experience to back it up.

Given that I'm too over qualified for a junior role but do not have the commercial experience for even an intermediate role how does one go about changing jobs?

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This might be more suitable to ask at careers.stackoverflow.com or programmers.stackexchange.com. – Péter Török Jan 13 '11 at 10:28
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Try to be a boss. Boss does not have to code. He actually does not have to know anything. The less he knows the higher his position... :) – AlexR Jan 13 '11 at 10:32
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@no spoon: "Given that I'm too over qualified for a junior role " What does that mean? How can you be "over qualified"? "very little commercial experience in C# and no commercial experience in Java" sounds like under-qualified. Can you expand on this further? – S.Lott Jan 13 '11 at 11:19

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 13 '11 at 10:33

5 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

The question is about changing jobs. People who hire like to know if you can do the work then they will be willing to give you the job. I had plenty of Delphi experience, back in 2004 realized Delphi is the COBOL of tomorrow today, so I got into C#.

The language is nothing special on it's own, the main things are the frameworks and learning the proper architecture in C#.

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up vote 8 down vote

Are you confident you can program in any language once you've learnt the basic syntax and some intricacies?

Programmers are programmers, is methodology, paradigms and experience what matters the most, not the specific language you're programming with. Any hiring manager that doesn't understand that should not deserve your attention anyway.

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the problem is not the language, the 'real' problem and time consuming are the frameworks. Even you know Java (as a programming language) you don't know how to work with Spring, Hibernate, etc. And you can not jump into a team where after 1-2 weeks you must be productive. this is what HR is looking in the last time. best regards, – RBA Jan 13 '11 at 10:51
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+1. Any programmer should be able to learn a new language within the same paradigms of a language he/she already know, easy. And 1~2 weeks is more than enough time to do the basic stuff. If you know the concepts you will be able to produce anything useful in short time, say, 1 month. If your employer cannot wait this short-experience time, than I don't know what he (employer) is doing on IT business. – Machado Jan 13 '11 at 11:34
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Previous comment doesn't apply to really different languages, like Delphi (procedural/OO) and Haskell (functional). – Machado Jan 13 '11 at 11:35
up vote 2 down vote

Well in our part of the world in indo pak you are in a lot of problem the scenario you have mentioned

i think that you should go for a 1 month coding spree in your own project at home and then try to go for some job . the employer who is hiring you would expect you to be really use to the coding style of the particular lang . he will not expect you to be finding your feet.

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up vote 1 down vote

Now, I'm in the same position as you. At this moment I'm thinking to continue with Java (learning, getting involved in open source projects,etc). On the other side, the market is coming up with 'delphi + C#' offers, a lot of companies want to migrate their applications/architectures from Delphi to C#. Is a hard choice to do. But what's sure 100% is that the market is telling what to do.

Other thing, in 8 years you've got enough 'commercial' experience in SD, so I believe this shouldn't be a problem, even the programming language is another one.

Best regards,
Radu

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up vote 1 down vote

I see, thank you all for your comments

I am comfortable with using C# and have a strong understanding of most concepts for example working in a disconnected environment, view states, garbage collection, unsafe code, pinvoke, etc to name just a few, but I have no experience in silver light and I've noticed that more and more employers are looking for this.

With Java on the other hand I have lots of experience with the language as I write graphics applications using JOGL but I have no experience with net beans, swing, or spring as someone mentioned above.

Perhaps over qualified is the wrong word to use. I meant that I doubt any employer would pay someone a senior level salary for a junior role nor would an employer believe or be comfortable hiring someone who was on a senior level salary but it willing to accept a junior salary for the sake or getting the job.

The company I am working for is looking for a junior Visual Basic developer to maintain a legacy app, I am involved in interviewing candidates and we have already turned down senior VB programmers simply because they have to much experience and they would soon feel underpaid and therefore unsatisfied if we hired them on a junior salary.

Anyway I'm leaning towards Java mobile development which I have no experience in and cannot find any courses offering in this area so I'm starting to write my own Android apps.

The only reason I'm moving is because it looks like Delphi is definitely on the way out, yeah I know its been going that way for awhile now but I was hoping that things would pickup when Embarcadero took over but it now looks like nothing is goig to change anytime soon and the longer I wait the more of a dinosaur I become, well in my part of the world anyway.

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If you register your Programmers' account using the same OpenID as your Stack Overflow account when you associate your accounts this question should be (eventually) reattached to your account. If after 24 hours that hasn't happened contact team@stackexchange.com with the details and someone should be able to help you out. – ChrisF♦ Jan 14 '11 at 10:43

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