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If you consider yourself simply a "Java developer" then it would be in your best interest not to apply-to/join-a company that is insistent on pigeonholing the d

If you consider yourself simply a "Java developer" then it would be in your best interest not to apply-to/join-a company that is insistent on pigeonholing the developers into certain technologies. Avoid recruiters since all they do is keyword matching between a job requirement and a resume. Why were you not comfortable with a regular/back-end Java coding interview? What would you have preferred to be asked? Are there any meetups in your city? Start networking. If your a good developers, then there is no need to just join any company for a paycheck. Join the right company. The key question I ask anyone I interview is "how do you keep current"? Not everyone needs to spend their free time on some open-source project, but a proactive interest in your profession is a requirement IMHO. Get a free account on AWS and/or Google App Engine. Just create something. Your skills have stagnated over the years. Do not get into this scenario again.

layofflayabout 14y ago
Stagnated...maybe, maybe not. Over the past few years I've taken an interest in functional programming and machine learning, lately doing some programming in Clojure and looking at Scala. I've been "keeping current" with these technologies, but none of that is J2EE, Hibernate, JUnit, JQuery. We all love to hate Larry Ellison but I'm starting to think he was right when he said that the computer industry is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. I will be creating something, but right now I feel like I have to do something that uses the fashion instead of something I love. A project motivated by fear instead of love? I cringed while I typed that, but there will come a time when the savings runs out and the family will still need to be fed.