Need Advice: What languages should I learn?

Question

I will be graduating next year and would like advice on languages that are in demand, I already know C,C++, PHP and Java. I would like to learn other languages that might help me get a good job. would .Net and Ruby suffice? should I learn scripting languages such as Python and Perl as well?

Wow! so many responses in just a couple of minutes :), Thanks to every one who responded. I would like make this a Wiki article too. Many students seek the same answer as i was searching for and this would be really helpful.

Answer 1

Try learning a functional language, since it looks like you already have a pretty good handle on imperative languages. How about Scheme, Prolog, F#, or Lisp?

Answer 2

You will get popularity of languages at the TIOBE site.
What matters is can you program in the language you learn.

There is a difference of syntax and semantics
in learning a language and learning to program.
If you do the latter, picking up the language required for your environment will never be a problem.

Unlike suggested by some, never get comfortable with a single language.
Find your comfort in algorithms, data structure definitions and problem visualization.

Answer 3

Decide what field interests you the most and learn the language best suited for getting things done in that field.

Answer 4

It really depends on what kind of job you want. Based on your list of known languages, I'd suggest learning C#.

Answer 5

Some .Net languages :) (C#, VB)

Answer 6

See:

• What language should I learn next?
• Should I learn Ruby or Python?
• Should I learn perl or python?
• What web-oriented language should I learn after PHP?
• Which Programming Language Should I Learn?

And of course also:

• What should we not choose for our next programming language, and why?

Moreover:

• Should I learn a .NET Language?
• Why Should I Learn Ruby?
• Should I learn Perl, and why?
• Why should I learn Python?

And finally:

• Should I learn what the market wants, or what I think is cool?

Answer 7

Learn something that will teach you how to program in the multicores environment easily. Something functional in nature comes to mind. It looks like it's the direction things are going.

Answer 8

Ideally you'll want to learn the languages that help you do your job effectively. If your job requires a lot of text processing, Perl is invaluable. If you're doing rapid prototype stuff, its hard not to recommend Python. Since you're looking for a job, you outta focus on languages that have the most appeal.

Knowing C++ and Java will make you a desirable new-hire already.

I would definitely add .NET (edit: C#), especially if you are in the greater Seattle area (MSFT country).

I think python and perl are great languages to learn (python is my favorite language of all time, even more so than the language of love), but in my limited experience, they're nice to haves, but fall lower in priority over C/C++/Java/C#.

The jobs I see asking for scripting, python, perl, flex, etc, tend to be lower paying jobs, than ones that specifically look for C++, Java and C#. In my opinion, those are the big three, and other languages are like the icing on the cake.

Answer 9

In terms of being able to scope out a lot of jobs, .NET is pretty big and seen everywhere. I haven't seen too much Ruby, although it's definitely out there (both in big and small companies). I've been working with Python as of late myself, and I have seen some Python developer jobs even on the Stack Overflow job boards.

Answer 10

People's definitions of `knowing' a language varies; I think it's probably at least as useful to be at a point where you can say, with some certainty, that you know one language reasonably well. To a point where you can routinely answer questions on SO about it, for example.

Confidence in your ability in one language will be a useful yardstick for learning others. Oh, and employers appreciate it above mere familiarity, too.

Answer 11

English is Universal.

Answer 12

Python - The one language that's guaranteed to help in whatever you do related to programming and computing in general. It's a shame so few places teach it formally.

If this was 7 years ago, the answer would have been Perl instead.

Answer 13

Depends on where you wanna head. employment, freelancing? You need to learn also frameworks, not only the language. I'd say Ruby and Rails with JScript and jQuery are in high demand as being productive.

If you're looking at freelancing, go to a site like Elance.com or rentacoder.com and see what kind of projects ar ein demand. It seems that the most demanded is still PHP.

Answer 14

my suggestion would be to pick two of the languages you already know - C++ and Java, and get much closer to mastery of them.

Answer 15

I'd recommend the D programming language. The cool thing about it is that it's the best attempt I've seen to blend all three major paradigms (procedural, OO, functional) such that you can use any one of them for any subproblem. You might learn functional faster in a "real" functional language if you stick to it, but it may be very frustrating, and won't see how the different paradigms fit together and complement each other like you would in D. In D, you will start out programming in whatever style you're used to and gradually learn to blend more and more functional flavored stuff into your code and use immutable data more until you're fairly comfortable with the paradigm, but without being forced to use it everywhere.

Answer 16

C# is the big one you're missing as far as demand goes.

However if you want a job at a serious software company (e.g. Google, Microsoft, etc.) they will be more concerned with your overall technology background and programming skills independent of a particular language. So it would help to bulk up on networking, databases, security, etc. At Google and Microsoft, to take examples, you are expected to be able to tackle any problem, in any language, with minimal ramp-up time.

Answer 17

I'd recommend you learn bash shell, sed, awk, grep, and the other UNIX tools.

Usually you can make VERY powerful programs using these tools in a fraction of time that you would take to write the same program from scratch.

But they don't work on Windows!

Well, then use MinGW or Cygwin. Since these languages are for scripting, you shouldn't need to deploy them too widely, and if you do, just deploy the cygwin.dll with them.