Career in SharePoint?

Question

I would like to learn SharePoint. Are there any jobs for SharePoint professionals in this recession time? I have .NET knowledge.

Answer 1

You can go to job sites such as http://www.indeed.com/ to gauge the demand for different products/technologies in your area.

A few places I have worked customized SharePoint pretty extensively.

Personally I see quite a bit of SharePoint use locally. I have gotten a few head hunting calls about SharePoint jobs recently, so there does seem to be demand here.

Answer 2

SharePoint is Microsoft's fastest growing product. It's complex to administer and develop for, and SharePoint expertise gets a pretty nice premium (at least, in the three markets I'm familiar with: Dallas, Seattle, and central Midwest). I get a few calls a week from recruiters who want my SharePoint knowledge.

If you want to be a SharePoint developer, you will need to be familiar with .NET and either C# or VB.NET, so it looks like you're covered there.

The first thing you should do is spend some quality time reading the SharePoint questions here to see what kinds of issues SharePoint developers face. There are some excellent SharePoint folks on SO.

Answer 3

To say there is a demand for SharePoint would be an understatement. Because prior to 2007 SP developers were very few and far between, there are precious few people out there that as of now have enough SP experience to work on the really complex projects.

However, SharePoint is not going away, and will be growing even further with the release of MSSPS 2010 next year. If you're a good ASP.Net developer looking to find a niche, then SharePoint would be a good way to go.

My #1 tip for new SharePoint developers: Download the WSPBuilder Visual Studio add-on, and install it before you start any custom SharePoint work. By seeing how the add-on structures your projects and adds SharePoint capital-F Features to SP Solution Packages, it will make it a LOT easier for those concepts to click in your head.

My #2 tip: Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 - the best book, hands down, to really explain how SharePoint works, top to bottom. Read this cover to cover, and you'll know more than at least 30% of the SharePoint people out there.

Answer 4

I'd say two sites are worth checking:

1. MS SharePoint Developer: http://mssharepointdeveloper.com
2. My RampUp: http://myrampup.com/

These sites contain a lot of information on SharePoint development including the labs and a Virtual PC with SharePoint and Visual Studio.

Answer 5

There is still plenty of SharePoint work around. However, most companies hiring SharePoint developers are looking for someone who is already an expert and will be able to help the existing .NET team learn SharePoint.

There is enough demand that you don't need a huge amount of experience to be considered an expert. However, you'll need at least some time on a real SharePoint project before you can get a job as a specialist. Your best option is probably to be working as a .NET developer for a company starting to use SharePoint or a consultancy that has both .NET and SharePoint projects.

Answer 6

hi,
are there any roles in sharepoint world which dont require programming or knowldege of .net c# etc. ?

many thanks for the advice . Mark