There are a few great Java and C# programmers, quite a number who are good and a great majority who are mediocre or bad. In my experience, those who hack scala

There are a few great Java and C# programmers, quite a number who are good and a great majority who are mediocre or bad. In my experience, those who hack scala/clojure/lisp/ocaml/f#/haskell/lua etc. in their spare time trend towards the great/good end of the spectrum. To answer your question more directly: Yes. I'll nearly always hire you over someone who wishes simply "to further my J2EE experience".