I've been using Scala for a number of years. Frankly, I'm very wary of recommending it to anyone. The job market seems to not be growing (if not shrinking, as Spark-based projects are largely moving to Python now) and the community is focused on complex and esoteric ideas for solving mundane problems ("purity" over practicality). You're likely to work with people like that on your next Scala job. It's great if you dig it, but sucks if you just want a boring language that allows for getting things done.