VB.Net v C#.Net Job Offer

stevefinnan

First off, apologies if this is in the wrong forum.

I have a computer science degree and I have been working commercially for the last 4 years with VB.Net and ASP.Net. I have no experience with C#. I have recently been offered two Jobs. The first job offer uses technology I am familiar with (VB.Net and ASP.Net) and the money + benefits are really good and it is with a stable company. The second Job offer, the money is not as good but they have agreed to train me up in C# and increase my wages after 6 months.

I am kind of leaning towards the C# offer as it seems to be more widely used. What do people think is it better to bite the bullet now and take the cut in wages to get into a C# role?

Evil Phil

Its up to you, I would say C# commands higher wages as it attracts *bigger guns* - that is people from a Java or C++ background or other OOP languages. Where as VB.Net in my experience is the next step from VB6. The work I've seen in VB.Net (and my exposure is very limited) is generally the same thing as vb6 just using the new syntax. That's really a reflection on the houses using vb.net as they are vb6 historically and not a reflection on the language.

With C# well you're taking a pay cut with the budget anyway - but you'll get an increase in 6 months time. With the Vb.net job however you get the advantage of a stable company (if there is such a thing these days). Only you can decide.

nialo

All depends on where you see yourself in 5 years time.. what you want to achieve. Stay where you are working with VB.net and get alot of experience and knowledge in the area or branch out and advance your skill set and learn C#... Dont look at it to much from a money side of things, your decision should be based on which option leaves you in a better position in a year or two.. nobody can say which is the right answer..

stevenmu

Personally I'd say to leave the language aspect out of your decision. If you're any kind of half way decent programmer the difference between VB.net and C# is very slight. I wouldn't place too much value on the training being offered, unless maybe it's formal training leading to certification if that interests you. If not, and you choose to go after a C# job down the road it would be fairly easy to learn yourself and maybe pick up one of the Microsoft certs. You shouldn't need to restrict yourself to being a VB.Net or a C# programmer, you should position yourself as a .Net programmer. I'd suggest evaluating both jobs on their other merits.

Ginger

Agreed with Steven on this one. I changed languages recently. I am a VB, ASP, VB.NET dev. Now I am a C# developer. Took about 2 weeks to get changed over and used to typing semi colons and braces again.

Methods are mostly the same anyways.. and the keywords are easy to figure out..

AARRRGH

VB.NET rightly or wrongly has a bit of a bad reputation.

Personally I would make the jump to C# for the simple reason that it's seen as a "serious" language and there are plenty of C# jobs throughout Ireland, e.g. this search versus this search

stevefinnan

Thanks for all the replies.

As has been pointed out above there is a lot more C# jobs available and rightly or wrongly C# is seen as the more serious language.

At this point i am definetly leaning towards the C# job but have not fully made up my mind. Does anyone have any opinions/thoughts about what diection programming is heading? Will Java/C# still be the main languages in say 5 years time?

Ginger

If we knew that, we would picking lotto numbers rather than programming languages!

.NET 4.0 will be previewed soon and in 5 years we could be looking at release 6 or 7... with any number of enhancements or variations..

Merrion

From the arguments you stated and from my own experience I'd recommend going down the C# road (which is a shame because in VS2008 and beyond VB is actually the better and more powerful language)

But if you want some foundations to your putative career I'd suggest some SQL. That's what the employers who still have some money are looking for :-)

John_Mc

Merrion wrote: »

From the arguments you stated and from my own experience I'd recommend going down the C# road (which is a shame because in VS2008 and beyond VB is actually the better and more powerful language)

But if you want some foundations to your putative career I'd suggest some SQL. That's what the employers who still have some money are looking for :-)

Can you elaborate on that statement about VB being "the better and more powerful language" in VS 2008?

Having taken up C# without much difficulty coming from VB, I have noticed very little differences between the 2 except for C# being a bit more disciplined.

kayos

Merrion wrote: »

From the arguments you stated and from my own experience I'd recommend going down the C# road (which is a shame because in VS2008 and beyond VB is actually the better and more powerful language)

Ok this is just false.... VB.NET and C# both work against the exact same framework i.e. the .NET Framework. As a result they both have the same abilities just that they are a different syntax. I really have never come across anything that you could do in VB.NET and not do in C#. Can you give any examples of how you came to this conclusion?

Ginger

BizTalk 2006 programming is C# only.. well the Orchestration engine stuff is

Not a problem really just showing that even tho the languages are based on the same CLR etc certain programs support only one or the other.

Oh and technically XNA is C# only, if you want to port it to the XBOX that is, otherwise its both languages ..

MySelf56

i agree with kayos.both for .net platform.i have 9 yrs experience MS technologies.i worked in both technologies.companies try develop in vb.
net coz availability of vb.net programmers.c# programmers think they direct decedents of god so their wages almost same as lehman brothers bank CEO. Given the times we are in go for money and work hard to get c# certificate so that you have choice weapons in ur hand.

pwd

I agree that it doesn't take long to switch. But on paper the c# experience is probably worth more because of the way it is perceived and the higher market rates etc.

Ginger

One thing I have noticed, is that people usually switch from one language to another for a couple of reasons

Most of the code samples are in the other language
General language in use in a company
Specific requirements by a customer for it

The first one was my main reason with moving to C# specifically with WF and MOSS. And also because it was the language used by most of the development team so for ease of use I moved over.