Developers: You are not a Language

Despite what recruiters think, despite what you might think, you are not a language.

Years of hacking have sharpened your mind, your instinct, your reasoning, until you no longer even see the code: you see the answer. You are a problem-crushing warrior, an architect of logic.

So why filter your job opportunities by ‘language’? 

I’ve seen this over and over: otherwise smart developers passing on great opportunities because the code-base isn’t written in their language du-jour.

When you seek a Ruby job, you’ll find a Ruby job. When you seek a great opportunity, you’ll find a great opportunity. What is it that you actually want?

It’s ironic too, because as web-developers, we code in Ruby/Scala/Python/Node/Java/PHP/etc and yet still find time to sling HTML/CSS/SASS/HAML/Javascript/CoffeeScript/bash and a dozen other protocols & formats: SQL/HTTP/XML/JSON/Ant/etc and operate a dozen more tools: Git/SVN/Jira/Jenkins/EC2/Linux/etc.

Don’t let your love of one piece of the puzzle narrow your career. Seek the best opportunity, and focus your reasoning through whatever lens/language gets the job done.

The best companies hire the best thinkers, and the best thinkers pursue the best opportunities. The rest is just cosmetic.