Tried searching for answers, but couldn’t figure out how to ask this question in a satisfactory manner.
Was having an interesting conversation the other day with a programmer friend of mine and it raised an interesting question. We were talking about programming needs at his new job where his boss was having difficulty finding experienced programmers in specific languages and so was forced to start teaching the programmers he already had these new languages. Not unusual, of course, but it made me wonder:
It’s hard to imagine not being able to find someone who knows PHP or Java or C++ or a host of other languages. But which languages out there are obscure enough that not everyone knows them, but in high enough demand that there is always a need for someone who knows it? And by obscure, I don’t necessarily mean arcane or archaic or are only used for one specific task in one specific industry…though that’s fine, too. If you were to say Python fit the bill and had good reason, I’d love to hear about it.
This is not specific to a particular market sector, front end vs. back end, or anything like that. I’m really just interested in hearing about what languages out there would make you a specialist (vs generalist) with limited competition (as in there won’t be many others with the same skill) and provide you with a very marketable skill that will likely be in demand for a long time to come, even if that was all you knew, whether it be a permanent sort of position, or a case where you are constantly being contracted to solve problems or develop software that only you and your very special skill could address.
Hope that makes sense.
