It isn't so important that a candidate know a particular language well, but a
track record of a willingness/ability/eagerness to learn whatever is necessary
is a big plus.
Amy Winarske wrote:
> The industrial viewpoint on Philip Resnik's questions.....
>
> As an "industrial" software engineer who once worked in Computational
> Linguistics, I say learn PERL and C, in that order.
>
> * PERL because it's useful, easy to learn, very powerful, and lots of
> companies are using it for a wide variety of tasks. You will be employed if
> you know PERL.
>
> * C requires a basic understanding of programming, there's lots of C code
> out there, and it runs almost everywhere. Most software engineers know C
> and will be much more comfortable hiring somebody whose skill set they
> understand. If you know C, you should be able to pick up most other
> programming languages.
>
> * C++ and Microsoft knowledge are in hot demand everywhere.
>
> * Java is not catching on because the promise of portable code has not been
> fulfilled. The reality of the situation is the various Java VMs are not
> compatible and programming in Java provides no porting advantages. Many
> companies are opting out for C++ instead because it is object oriented and
> faster than Java.
>
> * Lisp is almost nonexistent and Prolog even scarcer. I wouldn't waste a
> minute on either at this point.
>
> Amy Winarske
> Software Engineer
> Silicon Valley
> amy@winarske.com