I was hired as a C# programmer once, only to find out that they'd lied to me about the nature of the position and I would actually be working with SharePoint. I threatened to quit unless they gave me the job originally advertised.
Then the hiring manager bitched to me that all of the programmers they hired quit when they found out the job actually involved Sharepoint!
the hiring manager bitched to me that all of the programmers they hired quit
It's always funny when you hear someone complain that "everyone I've worked with in field X is an asshole" or "All the clients I have are assholes", etc. Pretty soon it's likely that you, not your clients, are the asshole.
Heck, I took a big pay cut to be happier. I was a .NET enterprise developer in the six figures.
There is something about building things outside the box instead of being part of an assembly line at corporate shops. The lack of politics and endless meetings is a bonus too. It's not always about the money.
This thread is indicative of the bias I see on HN. .Net and Java are "uncool" and therefore must not be suited for solving real world problems or doing interesting things. They are also often synonymous with bloated corporate bureaucracies and meetings. By these same stereotypes, should I assume that every Ruby developer is living in a party house with his 4 other co-founders, eating ramen and making social networking applications?
It's not bias, it's just a realistic observation of the market forces at work. People are willing to put up with bureaucracy and dull projects for more pay. There is no shortage of talent, there is merely an abundance of employers who are not realistic about market rates.
Until recently those were the only situations in which you could get a job as a Ruby developer – hamming it out on your own, in a small startup or at a consultancy.
It's still hard to get an Enterprise job as a Ruby developer.
Developers with a good head on their shoulders can get 6 figures easy doing SharePoint... but who in God's name would want to?