GUI (tkinter) popularity and job prospects for

[Rich Shepard]

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020, Lammie Jonson wrote:

> I looked at tkinter which seems to have quite a few examples out there,
> but when I searched indeed.com for tkinter and wxpython it appeared that
> there was hardly any job listings mentioning those. Why is that ? It's a
> bit of a demotivating factor to get very serious with tk etc. I was going
> to look at something like tensorflow perhaps, though I am not sure if
> machine learning is that easy to pickup or not

Lammie,

I'm not a computer professional but I've worked with computers for 40+
years, from main frames to personal ones. I also run a solo practitioner
consultancy after working for others so I know both sides of the job market.

My advice is free so there's no obligation for you to consider it.

You're looking for a job from the wrong end. Let me offer an analogy I use
to describe how you ought to go about your job search. I've often said that
you can teach someone how to use a word processor but that does not make
them a writer. Your rails/JS experiences and your interest in tkinter or
wxpython is focused on tools, not the products produced by those tools.

If you wanted to hire a professional chef how would you respond to someone
who told you they had great knife skills? Your interest is in what they
could do with those skills to prepare outstanding meals for you. After all,
it's the meals you're buying, not how uniform are their diced onions.

An employer will hire those who will benefit the employer's company and
position. The tools used to provide those benefits are less important than
the prospective employee's skill in using them to solve a problem or
increase company profits and prove how great a manager is for hiring you.

Make a list of what you can do and what you've accomplished, not a list of
tools you know. I've no idea what you really want to do but define that in
terms of both your personal satisfaction and what an employer would value.

And keep in mind the three steps in getting the job/career you want:

1. The cover letter's only purpose is to get the recipient to read the
enclosed resume.

2. The resume's only purpose is to get you an interview with an ultimate
decision-maker (not a personnel gate keeper).

3. The interview's purpose is to sell yourself as a benefit to the company
and proof of how clever the interviewer is by hiring you.

Good luck ... and stay well,

Rich