[acdha]

Never rely on a recruiter to give you a complete and unbiased story. Even if they’re being honest – about half the time in my experience – their perspective is limited to their personal blend of clients. If someone is recruiting for startups they’ll have a different perspective than large tech companies or large non-tech companies, government, etc. — and their direct interest ends when they get paid after you accept the job, so long-term happiness is only a factor for the good ones.

I would certainly make sure you have experience with multiple options in different categories so you have a good baseline for comparisons (e.g. AWS is the most popular so you’re not going to regret learning it but Azure isn’t exactly nothing). Beyond that, look at what’s popular in your area — e.g. if it’s mostly Java, you might want to learn that, move to a bigger market, or survey the remote options. I would be surprised if you didn’t have C# openings in any major metro area but all employers aren’t created equal and it might be a good red flag to heed if there isn’t much and/or they don’t have a good reputation.