Software Engineer with nowhere to go?

September 14, 2007 4:58 AM

Am I limiting my future job prospects by staying in my current job? If I'm not, what did you do with yourself to move up in the ranks when you started as a programmer?

I currently work for a large medical company writing server software in Java using J2SE. Whenever I do a keyword job search for "java" on Craigslist or Simplyhired (among others), I get tons of J2EE and web-related jobs. I don't have experience in either of these two areas of Java through work or schooling, so I'm wondering if I am limiting my future job prospects by staying at my current job.

Do you know of any industries out there that still write J2SE server/client or standalone applications? How hard is it to transition from J2SE to J2EE?

Also, what did you do as a Java programmer to move up in your company? With my current employer, the only way a software engineer can move up is if they switch in to managing, and right now that doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

posted by yellowbkpk to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Having been through more or less the same thing; the only answer that I can give you is perhaps.

The thing is - you're looking at a specific technology (J2EE) and making a determination that there are more jobs for that specialization. The glass half-full perspective is that you are in another less frequently advertised Java niche and that makes your skills and experience more valuable because of its relative scarcity.

I think it depends on what you want out of your present job. Are you being paid well? Switching employment is one way to get better renumeration. Do you want more responsibility? The traditional way (in my experience) to move up in a company is to design progressively larger chunks of the system. You'd move from software engineer to senior software engineer, from there to team lead, from there to architect. Do you want to expand your skillset? Then perhaps you do need a change, especially if you find your present work unchallenging or mundane. This is especially true if you are stuck maintaining a large, shrinkwrapped product or system that is undergoing little or no new development.

Sadly, moving up in a company usually means that you code less, not more. Every single upward transition that I made on the career ladder has seen me become more involved in the system and architectural details and become less involved in the coding minutiae. Promotion has always implied a larger chunk of people management than in my previous position - it's rare to find places where Distinguished Engineers/Individual Contributors get a comparable career progression.
posted by geminus at 5:21 AM on September 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm in a similar situation; I'm a J2SE developer working (through another company) for a large utility retailer. Realistically though, most of the stuff I do these days is SQL (including stored procs / functions) with a crunchy Java coating.

I plan on taking a couple of the J2EE certification courses from Sun shortly, mostly so I can say I grok the world of J2EE. I'm on the escalator upwards too though, so I'm spending more time telling other people what to do, and cherry picking the parts of projects that interest me.
posted by lowlife at 5:31 AM on September 14, 2007

There is a lot of pure Java (J2SE) server-side work in the financial sector. J2EE is a snare and delusion in my opinion although it wouldn't harm to know something about it.
posted by zemblamatic at 5:38 AM on September 14, 2007

In my experience of writing both J2SE and J2EE server stuff, there is not that much of a difference. J2EE is J2SE with some bolted-on libraries and frameworks.

There are also quite a lot of different J2EE frameworks floating around, so you can't actually "learn" J2EE as such.

So in my experience, the transition isn't hard - you're simply learning some new APIs. I picked it up very quickly when I started at a J2EE-centric company.
posted by Zarkonnen at 5:55 AM on September 14, 2007

My opinion is the opposite of Zark's. J2EE is a completely different platform than SE. Sure, the APIs are there and learnable, but the transition to a web-based model is akin to learning a new language.

I would suggest following the path of certification to get the basics, but specialize in a framework called Spring.
posted by toastchee at 6:40 AM on September 14, 2007

I am the development manager for a team that owns two critical applications - one is pure java, one is j2ee. What we look for for the pure java one is fundamental CS knowledge and a real understanding of what is going on inside the JVM (why is reading a long not threadsafe, but reading an int is - that type of thing). As zemblamatic says above - we are in the financial sector - in Chicago, not far from you. If that describes you and you're interested in a job let me know.

To be honest the hardest part of not knowing J2EE will be passing the initial HR resume screens. Know enough to put it on your resume if you can just to pass that hurdle.

Managing may be your cup of tea at some point, but if not some companies (mine included) have a technical track that allows you to move up to a reasonably high level without managerial work.
posted by true at 6:42 AM on September 14, 2007

By "job prospects" I guess you are referring to having a highly paid, fulfilling job in the future. In that case.. no, you don't have to learn whatever the flavor of the month is. Just because one area might be more popular than another doesn't mean there aren't still lots of excellent jobs in other niches. That said, by staying with J2SE only you are limiting the amount of jobs you can seriously look at but if you became just a killer J2SE developer I don't see your prospects or quality of jobs reducing any time soon.
posted by wackybrit at 8:10 AM on September 14, 2007