First programming offer

[major Fracture]

I just got my first programming offer with the
company I work for.... the major hangup I'm having
is that it requires developing on a Macintosh
platform.
The company I work for is a computer parts distributor which employs both PC's and Macs on
different networks. Right now I work in the
technical support department where we use nothing
but winNT/win9x while the rest of the company is
running on Macs.The owner of the company recently
(about 6months ago)%

[Saeed R]

wrong direction
go back to PC..
MS is the future..

[Thinker2000]

Take the time to figure out your goals. here's how I would go about it. It's really simple, even thought I'm making it
sound like a blueprint :)

Your goal is to be employed as an MFC programmer, doing cool stuff like COM/DCOM/ and other highly-paid stuff. Everyday
you should be doing something toward this, and you *are*, since you're learning at home.

From this point in life, May 19, you have basically three choices:
1. stay in tech support, while you look for the prog'g job you want
2. stay in tech support, and wait for a visual c+ opening in your company (not likely, right)
3. go for the position change

Ask yourrself, two questions:
1. Picture yourself at an interview at the company which will eventually hire you for your goal dream job: visual c++
The $10,000 question: what do you think the employer will want to see on your resume? Do it, be it man

2. This question is: which of the there options up there is the best path towards getting your resume to be what
the employer will want to see?

It's probably be option 3, even though you'll think it'll lead you astray. Work in that position for a MAX of one year.
When you update your resume to include what you've done, describe it so that it will help "paint" you as the solution of this
new company's goals. Tell them during this year, that you were soaked with abstract base classes (this is COM, basically!)..
Also mention that you were asked to write some Visual C++ utilities along wtih your current job for WHATEVER reason!
But, actually write them if you put that on your resume, even though your current employer *DIDN'T ACTUALLY* assign you this task. So if the future employer asks you
what these tools are, you can show him/her. Those two pieces of advice -- plus simply being able to answer tech questions because you're a doer in life, and you're on this awesome board -- will get you where you want to go.

The crux of what I'm saying, is this: *BE*ING what the employer wants, at the interview table at whatver company it will be, is your goal. It's no simpler than this. So keep
angling yourself towards this, and make this what guides your decisions.

[Crazy D]

M$ is not the future... they screwed it up.
OOP is the future in my opinion, and if you can program C++ it doesn't matter which OS it is... (at least for me it doesn't matter).
I'm sure Linux will be a pretty big competitor for M$ in the next few years, so learning Ansi C(++) might be a better choice then learning MS C++

[Steve B.]

You could be right about Linux.
I don't think there really is any worry for anyone to feel left out of a particular portion of jobs if they choose to focus on a specific platform.
In other words, someone who has chosen to spend most of his career writing C++ on the Linux platform, shouldn't have any problem getting into a MFC job( for example, he moved out of state, and to his shock saw only MFC jobs). If the prospective employer saw that he knows C++ in and out, and can answer some fundamental MFC questions, and can interview with confidence (my knee was shaking on my first programming job:) he's in there.
In my very humble opinion
Steve
(i still will focus mostly on what I see in the job ads, which are more and more com/dcom/atl/mfc)

[major Fracture]

Thanks to all who have replied...

I've gotten more clarification since my last
post... The owner of my company does not want
to uproot me from my current job - He just
wants a few employees to learn the programming
environment for his Macintosh database because
eventually all of his employees from his database
company will be leaving the building... so this
will all be risk free as far as I'm concerned and
the good thing is that the owner has acknowledged
me as a programmer... plus I still get to stay
on the 'pc' side of things
I dont know if this is the end of this thread
but there is still a very interesting topic
left-
'to be platform specific/certified '
or
'know ANSI C/C++ very well and have a broad
understanding on how its use on other platforms'

I have seen some posts where people have indicated
they would rather take a programmer with broad
industry knowledge rather than a person with
certification