I am hoping that my 20 years of experience as an RPG programmer on the IBM AS/400 will help, but it won't make up for the fact that I've never worked with C# or .NET before. So I know I'll have to work even harder and it will take longer than I originally thought in order to accomplish my goal.
One thing I know for sure, the harder it gets and the further away the goals get, the harder it is to stay on track rather than just saying "f--k it". I know because I went through a major career change when I turned 30, and I felt pretty lost when I looked at what I needed to do to make a living.
I am now 35, and I am far from "done", in fact, those who think they are done with anything are stagnant, there is no such thing as "done". However, even though I still have years of continuing education ahead of me, I did manage to land a job that I like doing, that pays the bills, and that leaves enough disposable income to do some fun stuff every now and then.
I guess what I am saying is this; You are an expert at something, no, not at C#, but perhaps that doesn't matter as much for the immediate future. As someone with as much professional experience as you have, is it feasible for you to go back to work as entry level C# coder? Meaning is it worth your time to work for ..., well however much it is they pay C# coders where you are located (and considering the issues of globalization and outsourcing of a lot of coding)?
If it's about learning .Net (and again, I may be alone in this), maybe you would have an easier time with VB.Net? There is lots and lots of VB and VB.Net code out there that needs to be maintained and rewritten. As a skewed indicator of demand, look at monster.com and search for C#.Net jobs and VB.Net jobs. It is true that in most cases a C# coder will be able to command a higher salary, but as they say, money isn't everything.
Ask yourself what you want to do, rather than working on what may appear to be the "right" choice in terms of becoming employable. You have a very long track record (presumably) of delivering robust RPG solutions on time and on budget. You are not some flaky kid right out of school who doesn't know anything about life and business. It is true that a new skill set will likely make you more marketable to a broader range of employers, but if you are struggling with the material and the concepts as such, then your time may be better spent elsewhere.
Again, you are already an expert, the challenge is matching your skill set to a vacant position. Much of it will depend on other factors (i.e. family, willingness to relocate, etc. etc.), still, you absolutely need to know where you are going, otherwise you can't possibly get there. What I mean by that is; Let's say you get your cert, then what? Where do you want to work (locally, same state, same region, same country, anywhere?)? On what type of projects do you want to work? What type of company? What type of work atmosphere? Do you have language skills (as in foreign languages)? Do you want a full time position with benefits, or would temp work be acceptable? How much cash do you need to pull in to sustain your standard and save for retirement, or do you need to adjust your standards?
All these questions, and their answers of course, are of importance in deciding where to go and what to do. Whether it's C#, RPG, or a career change to something entirely different, all depends on the answers to the questions above.
Written communication is tricky, but the vibe I received from your posts was something along the lines of "If I learn C#.Net I will be employable, and if I don't learn C#.Net, then I won't be employable." C#.Net will make you employable at C#.Net shops, any other number of things will make you employable at other shops, and your current skill set already makes you employable somewhere. If the "somewhere" is the issue you are trying to avoid, then that probably won't work. Even with a C# and .Net cert you will likely still have to go where the work is.
You will continue to struggle with C# and .Net if your reason for learning it is "because it's the right thing to do". You will succeed in learning anything you like if you do it because you want to do it out of curiosity or facination. Right now C# and .Net is simply no fun for you, you do it because you have to, and it sucks.
I don't really know how to properly express this in English, I am German after all, but the bottom line is something that comes to mind from Alice in Wonderland, where the Alice is asking the Cheshire Cat which way she should go, and the Cat says that it depends on where she wants to end up, to which Alice replies that she doesn't care as long as she ends up somewhere. The Cat replies that if she doesn't care where she ends up, then it doesn't matter which way she takes, because no matter what, she will end up somewhere.
If you don't know what you want to do, you have no way to get there. Learning C# and .Net becomes something you do to pass time.
Sorry for the very delayed reply. I actually thought that I had already replied, but apparently I didn't.
First of all, I must say that your English is actually excellent, and your writing style, grammar, and sentence structure are much better than most corporate professionals who I have worked with. You have conveyed your thoughts very eloquently, and because you have a very strong command of the English language, I never would have guessed that English wasn't your first language.
You wrote.....
Written communication is tricky, but the vibe I received from your posts was something along the lines of "If I learn C#.Net I will be employable, and if I don't learn C#.Net, then I won't be employable."You are correct in your assessment of my situation. Because I want to continue my IT career as a programmer/developer, it appears that the only way for me to accomplish this is to acquire newer programming skills that are currently in demand in the IT market. There are still RPG programming opportunities out there, but due to the economic recession and dwindling demand for RPG skills, the number of good opportunities is very small in my area, and I believe that it will get much worse over the next few years. Therefore, I felt it was best for me to take advantage of the opportunity to acquire some newer IT skills in order to make myself more marketable and employable. Even though this is traditionally a slow time of year for companies to hire new employees, and despite this horrible economic recession, the demand for C# developers is actually very strong in my area, and the recruiters I have spoken with have said that I shouldn't have a problem finding employment in early spring 2009 when I am finished with my courses.
I guess some of my early frustration and confusion with C# is due to the fact that I was trying to relate everything in C# to RPG. In some cases, it was possible to come up with a direct one-to-one correlation between something in C# with something in RPG (for example....the counterpart of a
C# method is an
RPG subroutine...and
invoking a method is the same as
executing a subroutine). But in other cases, there is no RPG-equivalent of something in C# (the concepts of Serialization & Reflection don't exist in RPG programming). I think once I stopped trying to relate everything in C# to something in RPG, my level of frustration and confusion decreased. I also realized that C# (as well as most other object-oriented programming languages) are much more complicated than the programming languages that I worked with professionally and learned in school (RPG, COBOL, BASIC, FORTRAN, Pascal), and I need to be more patient and allow more time for certain concepts to make sense. I also believe that it will take at least a year (probably more) of working professionally with C# and .NET technology to truly feel comfortable with it.
Exactly 2 months after beginning 70-536, on October 8 I took the Microsoft exam and passed with a score of 911.
Since then, I have taken the 70-528 course (October 8 - November 14) and passed the Microsoft exam with a score of 947.
I also completed the 70-526 course (November 17 - December 16) and passed the Microsoft exam with a score of 980.
Needless to say, I'm ecstatic and surprised about passing all 3 exams with scores over 900, especially considering all my initial confusion and frustration. But I've always been a good student (usually "head of the class", or if not, usually in the top 1 - 5% of my class) and have always had good study habits. So maybe I shouldn't be too surprised at my success. Still, I do believe that it will take over a year of employment to start feeling comfortable with C# and .NET.
I guess I have always known that I wanted to do web app programming and website development, so I am now enrolled in a course for the CIW (Certified Internet Web) Associate certification. I may also take another course to upgrade to CIW Professional. It appears that most of the job postings in my area for C# and ASP.NET web app programmers and website developers require knowledge/skills in HTML, XHTML, CSS, and Javascript. So it makes sense for me to learn more about these.
Thank you all for your helpful advice, encouraging comments, and useful information. Everything that was said helped give me the information and confidence that I needed to successfully complete my courses and pass the exams. I would like to wish everyone in advance a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Rudy
