I have been at Microsoft for the last 4 years out of college, working with windows OS and .NET stack. Looking to move jobs. A lot of other companies seem to use Linux and other programming languages (java / python). I have not used these since college. What has other people's experience been from moving to new tech stack? Is it easy to ramp up generally or will I not be able to apply a lot of what I have learned in the last 4 years? Would it be easier to target companies that use .NET? Anyone know what companies these are?
It's easy to ramp up and be productive, if you're working on similar domain. For example, if you've worked on email delivery system or something, it'll be easy to that same thing in a different technology.
You're not mid career. Don't worry about it
Ok mid career was probably not the best word to use. But the question is still valid. When you are moving companies at a SDE 2 or sr lvl I would expect that companies want you to make impact fairly quickly without a lot of hand holding to get ramped up. Looking for comments from people who have already done similar transitions in the past
You see college Java as "so long ago" for a "senior" guy. We see a junior guy, and one who worked in Java a mere 4 years ago. Run from any employer who cares. I'd rather hire an F# hacker for my c++/go project than a java/c++ oo-certified "architect".
Wth you are sde... you are expected to be able to learn new technologies if necessary... what matters is if you pass the interview or not
It's like midterms, anything not first or last is middle. Go for big companies that hire generalists, referall if possible. Small companies that you don't know personally just want bucketed pigeonholes.
I worked on the .Net stack for 5 years before switching to iOS and Python backend. The way I did it was by working at a startup that used .Net as well as other technologies and slowly taking on more non-.Net work. Then with a couple of years experience doing cross platform work, I was able to switch to a company that did not use .Net at all.
That is the problem working at Microsoft, u r stuck with their technology that no one else uses. Do prepare Linux and development stack or at least have good understanding before trying in other companies
there are folks here who use Linux and Open Source. I definitely recommend OP to look into that if he/she wants a safer way to try out the Linux tech stack
Switching is no big deal, companies are quite open to hiring people from different tech stacks; it's rather easy to pick up as fundamentals stay same. Personally I have switched multiple times. Started with .NET, C++, PHP, Java.
Lol. Be a generalist. Tech stacks don't matter. I switched to a Linux based startup and it took me a month or so to reach good productivity levels.
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Your post cracked me up. Title: mid career.... Post: 4 years out of college. ROFL 🤣
LOL!
Haha same here. It's like when you ask a kid how old they are the week after their sixth birthday and they say "six and a half"