Lots of enterprise Java gigs are basically cobol 2.0. One client I had… the code was literally cobol that was translated to Java.

Very inflexible and formulaic coding that doesn’t tend to build up the person. If you stay a long time at a Java shop, make it clear you weren’t in that type of role.

I think a lot of the “steady, boring” software jobs are in .net and Java, and people tend to spend a long time in those roles, so they get used to the structures of their codebase and the company they work at. They get used to “this is the way things are done” even if there are hundreds of ways with different tradeoffs.