Which .NET Skill? VB or C#? (Seattle: job market, salary, vs)

[DrinkGreen]

If you've read my other post, you know I'm thinking of moving to Seattle in a few years, and that I've currently got 6 years of IT experience. I am mostly trained in VB.NET applications, and not C#. Now I've worked on C# and I even have a minor history of experience with JAVA, so I'm not unknown to how C# functions.

Are there more job opportunities for one skill than the other or does one skill get paid better than the other?

Thanks!

[allforcats]

The fastest jobs resource is called NWSource, a combined Classifieds from the two leading newspapers in Seattle and a wide radius all around Seattle:
Seattle area jobs, employment advice and information | NWjobs
That should give you some info on the real IT job market.

[jwb123]

If you can pass a white board test re: C#, I would head in that direction.

[wsugrad03]

I agree with Jenbar. If you are familiar with Java, C# is a breeze....especially in the VS IDE. Just understand enough to pass a white board test. Most everything else will be learned on the job.

Being affluent in C# is a pretty pivotal skill to make yourself more marketable. Although this can be generalized bit more by saying that object oriented programming skills are more highly sought after (C++, Java, C#). I have experience in Java and I picked up C# almost instantly.

I can't really comment on which skill pays better. I think it's pretty much expected that if you're going to work in the IT/Software/Engineering industry, you need adapt to be a jack of all trades and pick up as many software technologies as you can. Not doing so may cast you into a very small domain that usually ends with you baby sitting a cryptic legacy system.

Pay tends to be binded to your job title and how you perform within your job title. See salary.com for a breakdown of software/IT pay scales in Seattle.