What do you think about applying (or hiring) applicants who have experience but not in the specific stack of the job? I’ve found jobs in fields I’m passionate about, but I don’t always have matching experience in the stack. Does YOE matter more than stack or is stack experience quintessential?
Ex: 5yrs experience in C++ but the job asks for 5yrs experience and Node.js
It depends entirely on the team and their comfort level with it. I’ve been very successful at landing a job in a new tech stack by first doing a few side projects in it. I’ve changed tech stacks three times.
However, since most developers very rarely change tech stacks, some will be deeply suspicious and want ample confirmation that you are planning to stick with it. They can be extremely uncomfortable when an applicant knows more languages than them. You also cannot say anything bad about their language or they will immediately disqualify you. You basically need to prove to them that you have seen the light of how great the new stack is and how you can’t wait to work in it. They will feel like you are praising them and take it as flattery. If you say anything bad about the new stack, they will take it as an insult and get angry.
Silly I know, but it is what it is.
So even if just for a weekend, I’d learn as much about node.js as possible. Maybe make an express server with some endpoints that connect to a database like sqlite or something.