Devs who switched from one language to another, was it worth it?

I've done software engineering management (i.e. hired people) but currently work as an individual contributor (i.e. write code) and I have 10 years of industry experience. My answer is based on the US tech market and I have very little experience with the tech environment in eastern Europe. So take this all with a slight grain of salt, your situation might be different than what I'm assuming here. Your mindset about what a senior dev is might need to do a little catching up to what your skillset actually is. While proficiency with a language is part of it, it's by no means the whole thing. Your experience solving problems, tackling technical debt, collaborating with others, writing maintainable code, and many other things is often much more valuable than your proficiency at the language. You are a senior dev because you speak the "language" of development and know how to get things done. If you hired a developer straight out of college who knew C# as well as you did but had zero industry experience, do you think they would perform as well as you do? No chance in hell. > if I learn Go now, land a job, will I be a junior again? Only if you try to get hired as a junior again. Don't do that. You're not getting hired just because you know Go, you're getting hired because you know all the other things. > How did it affect your career? It made me a better developer and helped me understand how to work with other engineers better. That skillset made me a better engineering manager, and bolstered my career considerably. Overall: don't sell yourself short. 5 years of industry experience is worth a LOT.