Always in demand: Can solve business problems. Can add value. Can understand business domains and apply technology. Can multiply the effectiveness of a team.

Programming languages, frameworks, etc. are tools, not skills. No employer needs more lines of code. Focus on addressing business problems.

Well you are not wrong, but the problem is no job ever advertised for someone to create business value. They all advertise and gate keep for a specific set of tech skills. So you have to jump that hurdle to get to the real purpose of the job.

All to say to OP. If you are getting traction with say Java then double down on that - get a cert, go to meetups, contribute some Java code

You're right that few companies advertise their actual needs. Employers, recruiters, online job boards, and the mass of job seekers have all created and participated in a system that uses proxies (degrees and other credentials) and checklists of "skills" that actually refer to tools. To make it worse, candidate screening got outsourced to HR and then to algorithms and so-called AI.

To get around those problems you have to get creative, stop playing the same game everyone else plays, find the alternate routes and back doors. Traditionally that meant finding openings and getting in the door through contacts -- family, friends, former colleagues, friends of friends, etc. And I think that remains the best way to shortcut the job application process. Another route is to pitch yourself like a freelancer -- identify a problem (or find out about it from contacts) and offer a solution to the business problem.

Poring over job listings and submitting applications is probably the least efficient and effective process, for both parties. No one likes it.

Two really old books describe some alternative job hunting strategies that have worked for a lot of people. Who's Hiring Who by Richard Lathrop, and What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles. Both of those pre-date algorithms and AI scanning your resume, but they do give good advice on how not to get stuck in that process in the first place.

I suggest ignoring the idea of a "job market," which is more of a statistical artifact than a real free exchange of labor for money driven by supply and demand. And branch out from applying at the same handful of cool tech giants and startups, look at the small/medium size businesses that make money and struggle to hire talent because they aren't big names in sexy niches. If you don't have a large professional network, get busy making friends and connections (I don't mean clicking to add people on LinkedIn -- get out and actually meet people). Clicking submit on hundreds of online application forms is just lazy if you really want to find a job. You will have to do the research and legwork and try alternate paths. Complaining online about job hunting failures or "the market" or dumb interviews won't fix anything, and it won't help you get a paycheck.

I intended my previous comment to get programmers to stop thinking of themselves in limited terms -- "React developer," "Python engineer," etc. Those aren't skills, nor do they solve business problems. Too many programmers fall into the trap of confusing their toolbox and experience with marketable skills. If we describe ourselves in narrow and over-specific terms, can we feel surprised when employers and recruiters do the same thing? Spend some time building up core skills, the fundamentals, the things you find across businesses -- relational databases, domain expertise, Unix servers -- and less time honing a couple of specific skills that will very likely fall out of fashion in a few years.

This is a very profound comment.thanks for those book recommendations too.

Yeah, exactly, I agree that it's all about adding business value and being able to learn and use any tool that is right for the job, etc, but my opinions don't stop the job market from behaving the way it does-- I apply to a number of jobs and out of them I see clear patterns in the ones that call back and the ones that don't. I'm just describing a trend here, not prescribing a way anything should be.

AI.