ADF vs. EJB/Spring: Where should I invest my time?

Question

I am a junior Java SE developer, planning to become a Java Standard Edition professional. Which technologies/frameworks will be the smartest thing for me to learn? I will invest a lot of time and energy on the technologies that I eventually choose and it will be the basis for my carreer. I need to choose carefully.

I have one question in particular regarding Oracle ADF: How can it be better than Spring or EJB 3.x? No offense to the ADF developers - and please excuse my ignorance - but is there a reason for using ADF other than locking customers to Oracle products? If ADF is an inferior technology I fear I will be making a mistake choosing to specialize in ADF.

Let's say that I was offered a junior position as a pure ADF developer working exclusively within the Oracle universe. Should I turn down that job offer and instead make sure that my first job as a EE developer is with EJB or Spring?

Also, I've read that with ADF you may not even come in contact with actual Java code because everything is click-and-drag inside JDeveloper. That can't be a good start for my career learning-wise, can it?

Answer 1

Spring and EJB are open technologies that are used by many products in the market. If you learn them well you can transfer your knowledge in different environments easily. In fact they could be useful even in Oracle's ADF. If you are serious about becoming a Java Enterprise Edition professional, you need to invest in learning Spring and EJB. That doesn't rule out learning Oracle's technologies. In fact you will have to learn a lot of technologies during your career.

Of courser decisions about career development aren't only based on technical characteristics. There could be other reasons that would make you think differently.