How to look for a programming opportunity
btilly: In most cases I agree.  If you can't get a job with your primary language, you'll have a harder time getting one in a language you just learned.But there are exceptions.  For instance if you don't have a programming background, learning the basics of something employable is a good idea.  Also some things do become obsolete.  For instance if your background is VB 5, you should update your skills to be more employable.  (Actually you should have done that a few years back...)Another exception is when a particular area is hot.  If not many know a suddenly popular language or library, teaching yourself that tool can give you an edge on those jobs.  Of course most jobs are maintaining something that already exists, and so don't need to cool new stuff.  And more people try that strategy than there are jobs, so it may be a losing proposition to compete there.  But, for instance, a lot of people learned Java back in the mid-90s to jump on a bandwagon, and it worked out for many of them.Also it is fine to learn something for the job prospects when you have an obvious hole in your resume.  For instance if you've been doing statistics professionally and you haven't learned R, you probably should.  If you're a Perl web programmer and haven't learned Catalyst, it is at least worth playing with for a couple of weekends.  A Java programmer is on solid ground in deciding to learn Spring better.A special case of the obvious hole is when you need to learn something to get a certification.  The whole certification treadmill is something I hate.  But there is no question that it can help you, and acquiring relevant certifications is not a useless endeavor.And a final exception is if there is a specific requirement for a job you want that you have a realistic shot at.  For example I learned three languages before my Google interview.  I knew that the interview would be in some combination of C++, Java and Python, and I knew none of them.  So I learned the basics of all three, and made my lack of experience clear in the interviews.  I was not hired for my knowledge of those languages.  But without putting out that effort I couldn't have passed the interview.  However this kind of situation is the rarest of them all.  (This has only happened to me once.)