>>But, I need to be honest here -- as someone who works on a consulting basis for several companies, in work that includes interviewing potential programmers -- I would not hire someone who only knows VFP. Sorry, but it is true.
>
>I feel sorry for any company whose hiring managers look only at what letters an applicant has on her resume, and the number of years after those letters. Someone charged with finding good people should have the skill to look beyond VFP/VB and see how well the programmer knows programming, and how good te applicant is at problem solving. It might take a good VFP programmer 3-4 months to become productive in VB, but after that a bad programmer who already knew VFP will never catch up.

Erik,

Totally agree. I think that 'good' developers are those who can learn to discard a specific product's syntax from the art/science of product development. xBase folks have historically been quite prro at this and I have no knowledge eiter way with VB, Delphi, etc.

I am compeltey confident that those who can adapt will always have enough work - and then some ahile those who cannot will just have enough work. <g>

Goodness gracios - is anyone "out there" not swamped with work right now?? I'm absolutely buried with NO chance of a break in the foreseeable decade. <g>

When hiring folks, I'd agree with Whil Hentzen than we need to occassionaly ask the out-of-lef-field question just to see how they react to the unexpected. That tells me more than if they can regurgitate a manual. <g>

Best,

DD