Hello IT/ERP Professionals in Sajha,

Could you provide some insights into a career-path in PeopleSoft with some Java. I know no one can predict the future but what do you think does the PeopleSoft prospects look like for the next few years and what make you come up with those conclusions?

Or, how would you compare a careerpath in Peoplesoft vs Java?

Serious replies only please.
Thanks!!

 It depends on your interests and background. PeopleSoft is an enterprise application with a lot of problems and I personally think it sucks. If you do not have programming experience, you might want to go with PeopleSoft because the learning curve is not as steep. However, you always need to think about the future. What if companies stop using PeopleSoft and move to a different software? Normally, I wouldnt wan't to make a specific software my career path. Also, you will be stuck in the ERP/Human Resources sector. Technologies evolve much faster and it would be wise to learn something that is generic and more fundamental to computing. However, if you learn to program ( with Java ), I expect you to learn the fundamentals  which  will enable you to solve problems , regardless of the domain of problem. You can move across different domains and even use different languages/toolsets as needed. Java is not the perfect language either. It is bloated. There is no such thing as a perfect language. Every language has some killer usecases. So, learn how to program ( java is good to start with, but I prefer something functional), and things will fall into place . Cheers :)

Clojure,
Thank you for your input.

At one time, C++ used to be a required course in specific college level IT degrees until Java (and .NET) came along. I now see Java being a dominant player when it comes to development platforms. Java seems unfazed by the dynamics in the IT world as of now. Once very popular MS .NET platform seems to be stagnating, on the other hand. You know the support for Silverlight from MS seems to be slipping away too. That might be related to the lessened demand for ecology of MS development platforms.

I was more wondering about the ERP related softwares in general. I was curious to know if  they are some generous people in Sajha who have been working for a number of years in PeopleSoft or its competitors or IT realms related to it.

Thanks.

I disagree. C++ is still popular. Like I said earlier, every langauge has its purpose. Heard of any great games written in Java? Because JVM was not designed to do that. Game developers cannot afford to wait for the JVM to kick in the garbage collector. C++  is widely used in the financial sector ( Surprisingly, COBOL too ). Java is quite popular as a backend language. Also, I wholeheartedly disagree to your statement that .NET is stagnating. Microsoft has always capitalized  on the fact that open source gets messy as time passes as there is hardly any authoratitive source ( Linux kernel project  and a few other are exceptions ) . Java's popularity has gone down because of a plethora of inconsistent libraries. Microsoft, on the other hand, has streamlined a lot of their technologies and provides an entire ecosystem with wonderful support , amazing developer tools and documentation. Back in the days, LAMP was the way to go. .NET wasn't mature. Things have changed now. Also, Silverlight was designed to compete with Flash and not with Java but it never picked up . I dont know why Netflix uses it . Since flash is dead, Silverlight will die too. Blame Apple for that . Also, Java is not a platform :). It is a language. A rather bloated one. 

Hi,
I work at Wipro Technologies and I am trained in Peoplesoft ERP as a Peoplesoft Technical and even an Apps Admin. I am interested in Securities. Well, I had got a project in hyderabad and I was fine over there but until I got a proposal from a Java Project. I am in a dilemma that what shall I do now. Well, location is a concern for me as I am from Bangalore and I am not interested to stay in Hyderabad for a long time. I even know that Peoplesoft is a dieing Technology but will sustain for few more years. But after that any company would rather go for Workday or Oracle Fusion. Now whats running in my mind is to get in Java Project now in the beginining, having necessary Oracle SQL knowledge. Get Experience and then move for a training in Fusion and I am very much interested to make my future career in an ERP product. But for a year more Is it better to stay in Java. Currently I am wokring in PS.

Learning a new language is not a piece of cake. It needs dedication and passion. Don't fall in IT trap just because you see someone making some more dough than you.

clojure, Totally disagree on this:
Java's popularity has gone down because of a plethora of inconsistent libraries. (I'd rather say it has gone up ). I agree on most of other things you said though.
May be you need to update yourself on market trends. Hottest trending tech these days are mobile* and analytics (in terms of number of jobs opening and popularity). Java is way ahead on this.

*except apple ecosystem.

I back KaliKoPoi's statement, "Learning a new language is not a piece of cake. Don't fall in IT trap just because you see someone making some more dough" .
I have seen many people making this exact same mistake.
As far as which language is popular question goes, there is no discrete answer. Personally I see that Javascript is becoming the major player among all. Javascript used to be a client side language few years back, now with server side programming built on top of javascript, everything is changing.

http://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/languages-and-frameworks