[zeemonkee3]

The problem is unless you have some offband connections or doing your own startup it's very difficult to switch languages as a professional. For example, if I wanted to switch to Rails development I'd have no chance getting a job which asks for 5 years experience with Rails - I'd have to take a junior/intern position which would be a huge salary hit.

So regardless whether I could learn Rails in a reasonable time or not, I remain stuck in my pigeon-hole (exception is if a new tech comes along like Elixir, where you have a chance at getting in the ground floor).

[superswordfish]

You can keep telling yourself that, but actually most places asking for only five years' Ruby experience would kill for somebody with the same experience in a similar language. Rails really isn't that hard to learn, especially if you're taking a job that involves maintaining/enhancing an existing project. You would be hired as a senior. Well, unless you actually can't grok Ruby after knowing Python, which would be a sad state of affairs.

[zeemonkee3]

> most places asking for only five years' Ruby experience would kill for somebody with the same experience in a similar language

I've yet to see any evidence that is the case (not necessarily Ruby, but in general)

[conceit]

with some diversity, if the job lets you explore new tools, you wouldn't end up in that dilemma to begin with.