What is considered to be .Net?

Question

When finding new jobs and looking at resumes you commonly see that someone expects or has experience with .Net. But what does that really mean? It seems that my current employer expected it to mean that I was familiar with the ASP.NET controls (GridView, etc) when in reality I had never used any of them before. I had used C# for 6 months while working on a project and I was familiar with many of the data structures found in .Net.

Which parts of .Net do you have to be familiar with before you can say that you're experienced with it?

Answer 1

To me, saying you have experience with .NET means you've experienced working with the .NET framework.

Whether that experience is through desktop software development or web based development, the experience is with the framework, not with a specific language or sub-framework.

Answer 2

Subject to interpretation on a couple fronts, IMO:

1. Version - There are 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 along with the upcoming 4.0 that I know when it comes to different versions of .Net. There are also service packs and updates on top of this in some cases.

2. Scope of .Net - There is the .Net Micro Framework, .Net Compact Framework and ASP.Net for a few different views on how one could use .Net.

Answer 3

as Java, there is multiple .NET usages and implementations.

You can be an "expert" in WinForms, ASP.NET or .NET remoting etc etc.

You have experience in .NET when you can explain what is .NET (Framework), where and how it works, also you should be familiar at least with one .NET compatible languages (C#, VB.NET or others).

Answer 4

"experience with .NET" is ambiguous. The .NET framework is huge. It's best to be specific, e.g. "6 months using C# for desktop applications" or "5 years using ASP.NET for large-scale public-facing web sites"

Answer 5

Check out Scott Hanselman's What Great .NET Developers Ought to Know.

Answer 6

Having "experience with .NET" on a resume or job description is too broad.

Candidates who put in on their resume either don't know that it refers to the framework, or are casting their net as wide as possible, potentially to areas where they little familiarity.

Employers who put this in job postings/descriptions are ill informed, and are not being specific enough about the requirements of the position. (Is this a web focused position (ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight)? Is this a desktop app position (Winforms, WPF, etc.)?)

While working in ASP.NET, Winforms, WPF, Silverlight, or whatever you should become very familiar with the .NET framework, but most likely specific portions of it. You may have worked with System.Collection.Generic and System.IO, but are you familiar with System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory? The .NET framework is so big that you cannot know everything and having as a bullet point is too generic.

Answer 7

When finding new jobs and looking at resumes you commonly see that someone expects or has experience with .Net.

It probably means they are either poorly informed or too lazy to post proper job requirements. Imagine that....