> Rust is great, but if one is looking for a job in systems programming, C and C++ is what gets one hired, regardless of their flaws.
That's true, but as a beginner I feel like starting with Rust is a lot more accessible, and could help someone switch into C++ later.
That I can fully agree on, after all it was learning systems programming via BASIC and Turbo Pascal, that made me adopt best practices in C and C++ from the get go.
So from that point of view, learning about lifetimes, modular code, and that bounds checking isn't evil are already good education stepping stones.
Recent example, while Android has adopted Rust for replacing their bluetooth stack, the newly introduced Android Games Development SDK focus on C and C++.
Or Microsoft, despite all their security speech, Azure Sphere OS and RTOS only support C on the official SDK, and the new WinUI components are all based on C++.
And naturally anyone wanting to contribute to the Rust compilers, most likely will need to brush up their C++ skills if they intend to mess with GCC or LLVM internals.