Unfortunately, companies that say they hire C++ developers directly, will usually only accept experienced C++ developers. New C++ programmers need not apply. Reason is that they don't want to spend years of time to train new hires. http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t1/JobHunting/32644965_0_1.html Some other companies (notably Google, Microsoft) will take a different approach: they will hire any good programmer, as long as they know a few languages very well (not necessarily C++), and then will train them from scratch to become a good C++ programmer.