A recent article discusses the current job market and your average American college graduate. The article basically says "If all you know is Java, you are screwed." At UNI, the first language they taught us was Java. I learned Java from Ben Schafer, in my CS 1 and 2 classes. I attribute my current interest in programming to him, and the things he taught me in Java have been and continue to be the springboard to bigger and better things.

The article doesn't surprise me. While I see where they are coming from, I think they somewhat missed the point. Java won't get you any jobs. So? I do not have empathy for my peers if all they know is Java. Getting taught one language is not supposed to be all you need to be a good candidate for any job - it's supposed to be the thing that gives you the tools you need to learn any language you can. Hell, getting taught two languages isn't supposed to be all you need - a great programmer should be able to pick up any language they need to in a fairly short amount of time. I love learning new languages, and while I've been taught Java and Ada via UNI, I've tinkered with many, many others, even going so far as to take classes on a few of them from the fantastic Eugene Wallingford. I've often laughed at my UNI peers who spend copious amounts of their time focused on school related things and none on simply learning. If all one focuses on is what school has time to teach, the real world isn't going to be impressed.

Anywho, just wanted to throw that out there.