Is specialization necessary in software development [closed]

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I have graduated from my university almost a year ago. Since then I have worked with many different technologies, such as PHP, JQuery, ASP.NET, C# etc. Recently I have switched to a company where powerbuilder is being used for development.

The problem is that I haven't mastered any of the above languages. I can do stuff with those but when it comes to the complex tasks I often struggle with it because I don't have enough deep knowledge about it. After looking at powerbuilder for a few days I sense that this is going to happen again because most of the application code have been do开发者_开发技巧ne using some sort of library which requires some advanced level of skill on powerbuilder.

My question is, is it OK for me to work on different technologies without mastering a single one of them?

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If you choose to specialise the you are taking an opportunity cost by making yourself unavailable for other types of work. This is good if you can be confident that your chosen specialisation will last for a reasonable length of time. However, you can guarantee (along with death and taxes) that software will change. You will always be required to learn some new framework or approach in order to remain current.

So to avoid finding yourself at an intellectual dead end (are transputers still in use anywhere?) you should adopt a doctrine of constant learning. Learning is usually fun and almost always leads to a joy of discovery of some new tool or design. And never keep this knowledge to yourself (it only has a half-life of 18 months anyway). Share what you have learned with others.

So to answer your question: don't specialise.

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According to the Pragmatic Programmer book, one of the tips for a good programmer is:

Invest Regularly in Your Knowledge Portfolio
Make learning a habit.

This means that you constantly have to use, or learn about, new technologies. While becoming a master in one particular technology may be rewarding, technologies come and go, today more quickly than ever. A mastery in one particular programming language, tool or API may make you a guru today, but may mean nothing tomorrow.

IIRC they also recommended developers to master several technologies, but remain versed in many - at least in the sense of having heard about them, played around with them, being able to engage in a conversation about them.

So, I would say yes - specialization is necessary, but this doesn't mean one should ignore domains outside his own.

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There is no 'right answer' to this question other than maybe, 'it depends'.

You will find it easier to find better jobs if you specialise, as you call it. I would think of it more as working with a specific language/framework. Further, it is important to solve difficult problems and gain experience, irrespective of the language chosen.

Once you've accepted the above as a truism and specialised, then I would suggest that you branch out and learn new languages. Fortunately, languages become easier to learn when you have more experience.

However, more than anything, you have to look at keeping yourself interested over a long period of time. That is the real key. If you have interest, you will continue learn and gain experience. Maybe that will mean you do something that is not particularly relevant to most jobs, such as writing a language compiler. Or maybe you will find that the rush of working for big clients on big projects is more important than a specific language/framework.

So that's it - just keep interested, and keep learning. And, where possible, build focus in the thing that interests you, as that will make it easier for you to find employment going forward.

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It is important to be specialized in at least one programming language/platform, especially early on in your career. By specialized i mean reading a book about it, cover to cover, and having extensive hands on experience developing for it, at work or participating in an open source project.

The idea behind this is that when you specialize in a language, you will learn many concepts that you can carry over to different languages/platforms. e.g: The master of a language can master another with relative ease.

Further on in you career being exposed to many platforms is a good thing, as you start to shift from begin a developer to a developer/architect, and you need to make decisions about which platform to use, the pros and cons of each platform and so no.

So my advice is try to master at least one language, along with its tools and frameworks. After that you can move on to different platforms. It is important to use the right platform for the current project, you will need to determine that case by case, with the assistance of a senior developer.