[prog] careers

[Akkana Peck]

sailajabhandaru writes:
> hello all,
> I am working in linux .
> And very much interested in programming part of it. 
>       I have some doubts regarding the aspects like 
> which domain will be more appropriate like pygtk,QT etc....
>        And if possible ,I want the  domain in 
> which  the professional  growth is more .......

Okay, I'll start, if no one else is going to.

Around here, most of the jobs I see fall into these categories:

1. Server-side programming of ecommerce sites.
   Java is still very common (usually in some larger framework,
   like JSP or Tomcat, so just knowing how to write an applet
   or application isn't enough) but there's quite a bit of
   PHP and perl out there too, and increasingly python, and
   I expect ruby will get more play over the next year or two.

2. Databases. I don't pay much attention to this market but
   I expect you couldn't go too wrong by getting intimate
   with mysql.

3. Linux kernel. I see tons of jobs for experienced kernel
   developers, but they seem to want lots of experience (3-5
   years min.) in one of a few very specific areas: mass storage
   (e.g. for large disk clusters), networking (usually wireless),
   embedded systems (including porting to other architectures)
   or virtualization.

4. Mozilla. Maybe it's just because I've been involved with mozilla
   so I hear about those jobs, but there seem to be quite a few
   companies investigating Mozilla technology (XUL and XPCOM) and
   looking for people experienced in those technologies.

Pygtk and qt? There doesn't seem to be much market yet for
Linux desktop application developers, at least around here.
I do hear about jobs now and then for gtk application developers.
I also know of people paid to develop wxWidgets applications
(in both C and python) though I've never actually seen a job
ad for that.  I haven't seen any jobs for pygtk (too bad, I
rather like it and would like to see more people using it) or qt.

Personally, I hope the Linux application market will increase and
eventually there will be lots of jobs in all these areas. If that's
where your interest lies, you won't be wasting your time by learning
it: if nothing else, each new bit you learn makes it that much easier
to learn other bits later.  But if you want technologies that are
marketable now, your fastest route is in server-side technologies,
databases or maybe mozilla (the kernel is more marketable than
mozilla but it also takes a lot longer to get credible skills there).

Happily everything on this list can be learned with free (as in
speech except for java) software. For the kernel and Mozilla, work
contributed toward the open-source projects will probably count
nearly as highly as paid experience. For server-side projects that's
not so true: companies won't be impressed by your work on your own
personal web page, but if you can volunteer for a nonprofit group
and set up their official web site, that might count.  Alternately,
get a job doing something else at a small company that doesn't have a
good web site, and once you're in, volunteer to build them a better one.

	...Akkana