If your resume is light on programming with language X, start developing tools or versions of existing tools at work in language X.

There are few things I hate more than people who insist on using the wrong tool for the job just so they can pad their resume, especially when I have to work with these people.

So you hate me now, Ryan? Hmmm? I guess I would hate me more too, if I sucked at what I did. But I don't think I suck. I try to get the most out of every language I play with. After all, programming for me is fun. Wny would I continue doing it if it weren't? OK. maybe for the money, but what I've found is that I simply cannot function on the job if my job isn't fun.

I probably should have phrased that differently. I don't hate the people who do this (well, most of them anyway), I hate their actions.

I agree that it's very important to enjoy your job on some level, especially when you're a programmer, but that doesn't excuse using the wrong tools just because you want to pad your resume. If you want to pad your resume on your own time, there's nothing wrong with that, but when you're being paid, you should be doing what's best for whoever's paying you, not what's best for your resume.

I'd like to think I'm doing what's best for everyone. I've realized significant gains by undertaking new learning at the workplace that have also benefited my employer. This is why I have always ended up in a special projects or R&D compacity, because I'm the guy they go to when people want their existing to do more than what it already does. I never feel when I am learning a new set skill independently that I am padding my resume because I am paid to be on the cutting edge. My employer expects me to know what the other employees don't.
But I still don't get this wrong tool thing.

The above should say "when people want their existing *technology* to do more than what it already does."