Ask HN: Requesting a reality check with C++ as a career choice

[servlate]

Hi HN,

Every time there is a topic about C++, all its warts show up, and it makes me wonder if devoting time to mastering it is fool's gold.

I know that there is a bias, the negatives are spoken about more than the positives, but I wanted to know from engineers who use C++ everyday, how do all these warts really affect your day to day work? Are they making you want to jump ship to a different tech stack?

I can understand, in a general sense, that feature creep, compile times, and everyone using a different subset of C++ features etc are real problems for any language, but practically, how much has it affected you?

Currently, I'm not using C++ professionally, so I'm trying to gauge the amount disconnect in real world C++ usage and armchair language wars.

Thank you!

[jmnicolas]

This would be a valid question (imho) for a hobby language but if it's about your career your only question about a programming language should be 'is it a desirable skill for an employer'.

A programming language is just a tool it doesn't define you as a human being.

Some are more convenient than others but at the end of the day the goal is to get paid not enjoy yourself : this is why it's called work and not leisure.

I'm not trying to be condescending here, I think you're not asking the good question. 5 years from now* you probably won't care about your current programming language, but more about your pay, colleagues, work hours and proximity to your home.

* this is HN so there's a big chance we're going to find someone that work in Cobol since 1982 and still love it like the first day ;-)

[taway_1212]

This is not entirely true. There are some low-level programmers who say they would gouge their eyes out if they were to work in a typical web dev environment (I'm sure there are also opposite examples). So: personal preferences matter to at least some people.

[jmnicolas]

Honestly I'd fight like a cornered animal before taking any JavaScript or PHP job ... but I'd take it if it's either very well compensated or my only choice.

And I'm 100% sure that after 6 months working with it Stockholm syndrome would kick-in and I'd be happy with it ;-)

[servlate]

Thanks, I understand and agree with what you're saying.

I'm a relatively experienced software engineer (9 years) and I'm not tied to one particular language or one type of work.

My question should have been clearer, more like 'C++ needs a lot of investment of time to be good at, before I sink in that time, what do professional C++ engineers feel about the language and are they trying to run away from it.'

I'm already up and running in C++ (a few projects) and have done C projects at work, but there is a huge jump, IMHO, in taking up a job that requires full time C++ knowledge and understanding from where I stand.