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Discussion on: Are newer developers pushed too exclusively towards web development?

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Jim

I worked many years in IT in the military, and the foremost skill it taught me is the ability to troubleshoot. Being able to understand the flow of data from input to output and how it's processed along the way, madeit pretty easy to identify and resolve issues. Working in IT, I used coding as an unofficial skill to make my life easier. For example, I was once required to install a hotfix on 40 machines without any software to deploy it. I spent some time writing a VScript program that used Microsoft's Windows Media Instrumentation (WMI) to remotely apply the hotfix and report the result. Once someone understands the problem, the ideas on how to solve it will be aplenty.

Languages vary by syntax and other design differences, but generally they operate similarly and thus are easy to pick up once you get the hang of just one of them. I think what's more important is the ability to understand and be able to work through problems. Once someone has that down, there's going to be few barriers for that person being able to move into other technical roles they hadn't anticipated.

I now work as a DevOps Engineer and I frickin' love it. My day is mostly a task list of problems that I have to solve, usually with code. I know this makes it seem like I'm the type of person who enjoys intellectual challenges, but I assure you I'm not πŸ€ͺ. The problems I encounter in tech are just different.