Java is in the awkward middle ground where a lot of popular companies are using more specialized languages and startups are free to use whatever the founders wa

Java is in the awkward middle ground where a lot of popular companies are using more specialized languages and startups are free to use whatever the founders want. So, a lot of companies that are older, stable, and risk averse are using Java. This means Java isn't very exciting and it clearly doesn't have the 'pop' on a resume other 'cooler' languages do. I don't think many people spinning up a new project will use Java. Go and C# are newer, often faster, and are just as full featured, not to mention Node/Python. This doesn't mean Java is a dead end. I think a lot of Java concepts are pretty transferrable to other OOO languages, and because of the stability and longevity, it's a language you'll be able to find a lot of jobs with.