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In my experience, the demand for Go devs far outstrips the supply - which isn't true for things like Java or Node. Also, companies that list a zillion technologies as requirements either don't mean it, or won't be able to hire a single soul - usually the former.

The problem is that it's hard to hire developers of less-used languages without the experience. I'd like to try working in an Elixir shop - I've done some side projects in the language and I like it - but it would be impossible to find an Elixir job without the requisite 3 years' minimum, and switching to Elixir professionally to get that experience would essentially mean an enforced demotion back to junior again.

It's definitely possible. I applied for jobs with 3 days of Elixir experience + 30 years of dev experience. My requirement of half time was the issue, not my knowledge of Elixir, and I still got an offer from super.mx (we're hiring). I feel Elixir is particularly easy to pick up for an experienced dev.

I'm not sure about straight-up Elixir jobs, but in my experience, some bosses are cool with writing whatever small module/dashboard/script etc. in a language of my choice, so that way you could get a few Elixir projects rolling (if there's no big resistance in the team)

Generally I would avoid building something in a non-standard language at a company unless there was a compelling technical reason to use it - someone else will need to maintain it and if you're the only Elixir person on the team that's not a very good long term strategy.

Totally agree, my team has been lumped with random projects in C# and Go for this exact reason, with no technical justification for it. It's not that either is particularly difficult to learn, but the person who originally wrote them did it for their CV's benefit.

> the demand for Go devs far outstrips the supply

True, but many many Go jobs are in crypto or k8s-like nonsense. If you care about building something useful and fun then you need to easily skip >80% of jobs.

(no doubt people will comment that crypto and k8s aren't nonsense, but many people do think so: crypto has been widely discussed here already, and k8s maybe perhaps makes sense in a few scenarios, but for most it's just an overcomplicated mess; I've never seen it be employed even remotely smoothly).

Anyhow, I think I'll do something other than Go because of this.

> The developer market may be hot, but I'm also seeing that they - and I - are getting more picky.

I see that a lot when talking to folks. The salaries are higher, but so are the expectations.

If they offered you the job, they must have thought you had the skills? Even if it was something that you didn't quite know, you could learn on the job?

I see this a lot. I call it “negotiating against yourself.”

I’ve always been a little scared when starting a new role for this reason, but you always figure it out - or it’s a bad hire! Only one way to find out.

> I wasn't convinced I actually had the skillsets they needed for what they were offering, their tech interview was a take-home assignment and at most an hour of reviewing it. I didn't feel like I had earned it.

"Feels like" is often be influenced by complexity. It was easy, but you expected it to be hard, so it must be wrong. It could be interpreted as a red flag, or it really could have been that simple. Keep an eye out for things that feel like they should be harder. Once you feel like you grasp the disconnect, ask questions to find out if it is an actual red flag, or, if bias was clouding.

No way to know for certain without making a decision, but the thought work to finding an answer will assist with the long-term confidence of the decision.

Would you be up for a backend only role in Go without frontend? If so let's chat :)