<story><title>Ask HN: What is the job market like for niche languages (Nim, Crystal)?</title><text>Elixir, Nim, Crystal, Elm...&lt;p&gt;Currently I am a JS dev, and not enjoying it at all. I looked at Elixir and Crystal, like both. But I am open to learning anything that is unlike JS at this point. How is the job market like?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>ptttr</author><text>I do definitely recommend Clojure - I&amp;#x27;ve switched to it in 2019 coming from Rails and JS and never looked back.&lt;p&gt;Clojure&amp;#x27;s job market is great, there&amp;#x27;s no shortage of offers, even for newcomers and it has been the top paying lang in stackoverflow surveys for years &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;survey.stackoverflow.co&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;#section-salary-salary-and-experience-by-language&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;survey.stackoverflow.co&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;#section-salary-salary-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, the most important part is that Clojure is a very powerful piece of technology that made me reevaluate what software engineering really is.
You can efficiently use Clojure for both backend and frontend with easy access to libraries from JVM and npm so you will never run into the problem, common in other niche langs, of too few libraries.
Nevertheless, Clojure&amp;#x27;s own ecosystem is filled with many great, cutting-edge ideas that you wouldn&amp;#x27;t find working so well elsewhere. The community is very welcoming, growing and diverse with people coming from all different programming backgrounds - all sharing the disillusionment with other programming languages and determination to find and build a better way.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jobs-blog.braveclojure.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;24&amp;#x2F;long-term-clojure-benefits.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jobs-blog.braveclojure.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;24&amp;#x2F;long-term-cloj...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>patrickthebold</author><text>I love clojure, and would love a clojure job, BUT my hesitation comes from the companies choosing clojure or any niche language. Choosing a niche language seems like a very risky move, to me. My fear is that that its a small company and someone senior and technical (CTO?) just wants to have fun in a new cool language because they are bored.&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;#x27;t get me wrong, I &lt;i&gt;also&lt;/i&gt; want to have fun in a new cool language because I&amp;#x27;m bored, but that&amp;#x27;s not a good decision for a company to pick that as a tool.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, I&amp;#x27;m worried that the culture is not entirely practical in their technical decisions, and that&amp;#x27;s my hesitation.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: What is the job market like for niche languages (Nim, Crystal)?</title><text>Elixir, Nim, Crystal, Elm...&lt;p&gt;Currently I am a JS dev, and not enjoying it at all. I looked at Elixir and Crystal, like both. But I am open to learning anything that is unlike JS at this point. How is the job market like?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>ptttr</author><text>I do definitely recommend Clojure - I&amp;#x27;ve switched to it in 2019 coming from Rails and JS and never looked back.&lt;p&gt;Clojure&amp;#x27;s job market is great, there&amp;#x27;s no shortage of offers, even for newcomers and it has been the top paying lang in stackoverflow surveys for years &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;survey.stackoverflow.co&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;#section-salary-salary-and-experience-by-language&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;survey.stackoverflow.co&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;#section-salary-salary-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, the most important part is that Clojure is a very powerful piece of technology that made me reevaluate what software engineering really is.
You can efficiently use Clojure for both backend and frontend with easy access to libraries from JVM and npm so you will never run into the problem, common in other niche langs, of too few libraries.
Nevertheless, Clojure&amp;#x27;s own ecosystem is filled with many great, cutting-edge ideas that you wouldn&amp;#x27;t find working so well elsewhere. The community is very welcoming, growing and diverse with people coming from all different programming backgrounds - all sharing the disillusionment with other programming languages and determination to find and build a better way.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jobs-blog.braveclojure.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;24&amp;#x2F;long-term-clojure-benefits.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jobs-blog.braveclojure.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;24&amp;#x2F;long-term-cloj...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>casion</author><text>I can second this. I&amp;#x27;ve worked in the industry in academia, enterprise and industrial. Switching to Clojure not only has me at my highest salary ever, but I&amp;#x27;m consistently working with some of the best people I&amp;#x27;ve met in my entire career. The community is incredible, the job market is open and the people who seem to be attracted to the ecosystem are fantastic engineers and generally great people.&lt;p&gt;30 years as a professional dev, and I&amp;#x27;ve never been happier.</text></comment>