Here is a totally different view from Europe. I have 20+ years of career in R&D, consulting, startups and multinationals, publications in 1-tier conferences, lo

Here is a totally different view from Europe. I have 20+ years of career in R&D, consulting, startups and multinationals, publications in 1-tier conferences, lots of Java/PHP, a bit of Cloud, Big Data and ML experience. I grew up to IT Director, downshifted to a SSE at a unicorn. I've been searching for a new job for over half a year in Europe. Mostly remote. I am willing to do legacy programming. My only requirement is to work on a product creating real value. But I always bump into artificial niches: GDPR/CCPA/KYC compliance, all sorts of crypto, yet another social network, data mining users, trading floor software... Exactly the sort of things I am tired of. There is no shortage of software developers, but a big shortage of decent work.