> I have been using Common Lisp professionally since 1982

I've been humoring thoughts of transitioning professionally from Java to Common Lisp (CL specifically, not a Lisp like, e.g. Clojure) for a couple of years now, but I've always hit that wall of few to almost no job postings for it in Europe.

I'm aware of the "awesome Lisp companies" list, and the occasional posting, but other than a few shops, it seems to me that Common Lisp is professionally not a very fertile field. That always brings me to a stop, when I try to invest some extra time to it, as it has to fight other priorities with a reduced perceived RoI.

Is that a correct perception in 2025, and CL is really not a viable option for a career, or am I missing something crucial?

I think it is challenging to find CL gigs now. My last gig before retiring a year ago was with a South Korean AI company that was all-in on Common Lisp, but after I retired someone there told me that they transitioned to Python. Still, if you love the language, just keep looking for CL jobs.

Horribly off topic, but: now that I am retired I thought that I would do all my experimental programming in Common Lisp and Racket, but in reality I am spending half my coding time using Python because of the ML, DL, and large language model tooling.

Thanks for at least confirming that I'm not horribly out of touch :)

Also I don't think your OT remark is OT at all - it sort of demonstrates which domains have actual traction nowadays and why.

>and I agree with a lot of what you say.

what, if anything, about what the GP says, do you not agree with? interested.

I see the value in languages like Haskell, even though I have only had one paying Haskell job, so I am a million miles away from being an expert at the language.

I liked the grandparent post’s opinion on Typescript: the type checking support can only help for very large projects.

Even with Python, I use Pendantic more often now, as well as type hints.

guessing you meant pydantic.

anyway, thanks.