Replies

this despite having a bit of a desire to work with Ada (used commonly in Aerospace, nuclear, and other safety-critical fields -- and not a common line-item on CS grad's resumes)

Hopefully you're not too insistent upon Ada as a desired job skill, vs. C++, Java or C#. The only place I know of where Ada skills are still considered a valued attribute is Europe. It's long dead as a desired programming skill in the U.S. aerospace and defense industry, except on legacy programs still in maintenance mode that haven't yet been upgraded or replaced.

Moreover, the "Aerospace and nuclear" industries that you cite aren't exactly hiring these days, even if they were looking for Ada programmers. Quite the contrary.

Hopefully you're not too insistent upon Ada as a desired job skill,

How insistent is too insistent? Mostly I want to use good tools that capitalize on compiler-technology to catch errors earlier, rather than as an option.
BTW, Ada just got it's new standard: Ada 2012. (Though perhaps the Rationale does a bit better explaining/introducing things.)

vs. C++, Java or C#.

Just cause I didn't list them doesn't mean I haven't used them; I did a little w/ Java [in school] and my sub-subcontracting job is C# -- that doesn't dissuade me from my opinion that they are inferior to producing large systems and, all other things being equal, would rather use Ada.

The only place I know of where Ada skills are still considered a valued attribute is Europe.

Funny you should mention that; I've put out a few (2 or 3) inquiries to European companies... not much interest though.

It's long dead as a desired programming skill in the U.S. aerospace and defense industry, except on legacy programs still in maintenance mode that haven't yet been upgraded or replaced.

I know for a fact there's a demand for it -- the F-22, IIRC is one -- I think the problem there is that I fail the "minimum of X years industry experience" and possibly the "security clearance" (though that one's mitigated in that they usually have an "or the ability to obtain" clause and that I do have prior military experience).

The one time I got a real response on it the hiring-manager disappeared from the face of the earth and the employment agency that had me lined-up was kinda in a "well crap" position. (The job sounded pretty interesting too, working on HUD for, IIRC, aircraft [though I don't recall if it was the F-22].)