Expanding Knowledge

[JonnoWeb]

Here's the deal - I've had an extremely good run with contracts as a Lotus Notes/Domino developer (12 yrs+ with no bench time). Got all the necessary skills - HTML/CSS/JS/Java etc.

Question for today is where should I be looking to cross train to. My gut feel is for websphere, but not sure of the market/rates for developers, and a couple of friends have suggested Sharepoint, but worried about going Microsoft as the market may be flooded with two bit developers .

Experience and suggestions please.

[thunderlizard]

You should be OK with sharepoint. Think what all the 18 year old hobby programmers are doing in their bedrooms. C# and Ajax yes; Sharepoint, Biztalk etc. no.

[barry_abs]

sharepoint demand is paying rediculous rates at the mo.. sharepoint seems to be the new SAP, people getting into it for the money..

personally, i'd rather wash cars (again) than work with sharepoint (any more).

biztalk is a useful.. websphere is biggun and the future.. a lot of buzz around business intelligence too (normally sql server 2005 reporting services, despite it being urinated on by the more expensive oracle fusion BI stuff).

it's up to you man, i think you need to ask yourself what turns you on (if anything) in this game.. what are you into? coding? design/arch? process? data management?

[kingshuk]

Here's the deal - I've had an extremely good run with contracts as a Lotus Notes/Domino developer (12 yrs+ with no bench time). Got all the necessary skills - HTML/CSS/JS/Java etc.

Question for today is where should I be looking to cross train to. My gut feel is for websphere, but not sure of the market/rates for developers, and a couple of friends have suggested Sharepoint, but worried about going Microsoft as the market may be flooded with two bit developers .

Experience and suggestions please.

Websphere. Last couple of years it has become the leader in app server market. I have seen jobs posted quite regularly needing websphere skills. IBM has also built/rebranded other products around (MQ for example) that have pretty good demands too.

[2uk]

personally, i'd rather wash cars (again) than work with sharepoint (any more).

Oh, Please go ahead. More breathing room.

[barry_abs]

More breathing room.

for you or me?

[2uk]

for you or me?

me

[JonnoWeb]

Thanks guys - thinking Websphere now. Final question - I have a couple of routes to take, developing using Rational Application Developer, or just straight java - advice please.

[SueEllen]

Rational Application Developer = Eclipse for the IDE

If you are using straight Java you will be expected to know how to use one or both plus websphere application developer.

[dotnetter]

sharepoint demand is paying rediculous rates at the mo.. sharepoint seems to be the new SAP, people getting into it for the money..

personally, i'd rather wash cars (again) than work with sharepoint (any more).

biztalk is a useful.. websphere is biggun and the future.. a lot of buzz around business intelligence too (normally sql server 2005 reporting services, despite it being urinated on by the more expensive oracle fusion BI stuff).

it's up to you man, i think you need to ask yourself what turns you on (if anything) in this game.. what are you into? coding? design/arch? process? data management?

Out of interest why do you not like working with SharePoint.

I think it's a great product and can only see it improving to be honest.