I would recommend monitoring #C05006WDW channel. Sometimes, ads there specifically mention that no prior clojure experience is required.

There's more competition these days for sure. But there's always been tbh! The few times I got to review applications, it wasn't rare to receive CVs from guys with crazy-impressive Lisp, Clojure, JVM, etc experience. I'd say that breaking into the market is about (subtly) highlighting what specific value you may bring to a company, even in face of competition (of misc levels). Your experience is likely valuable, just don't undersell it by briefly saying e.g. "10y Python experience" which makes it easy for companies to quickly put you in the wrong bucket. Lastly, a T-shaped, Clojure-specific portfolio can only help.

Also, read the back log for #C0KL616MN as there have been all sorts of interesting discussions about finding Clojure jobs there.

I've certainly hired people in the past with no Clojure experience and I've helped train many junior Clojure Devs over the years. Clojure has a shallow learning curve (it's a small language) so new Clojure devs can become productive quite quickly in it. Experience in other langauges can be very helpful - e.g. skills in JVM languages can be useful for backend Clojure. Experience in JavaScript/React/DOM/HTML can be helpful for for frontend Clojure. When applying for Clojure jobs you can certainly add information about your non-professional Clojure experience. It's worth practising Clojure before the interview as this will show your commitment/interest in the language.

@UJVEQPAKS thanks for the reply! I have 9 years of experience in JVM (mainly Java, little Kotlin) backend. Many years ago I studied Schema (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) I also studied Clojure some time ago, but not that fluent anymore. But can get up to speed more or less without problems I guess because I understand functional paradigm and the Lisp way (ok, some reserves here, a bit of impostor syndrome as well). I have some problems practicing just for the sake of practicing, I needed a more tangible objective, like hired for a part-time gig where I could deliver real code. Given I have no real experience, I would expect a little of mentoring and a problem suited to my skills, but still something more real than just practicing sorting or some other kata. Many thanks for listening!

late to the thread, but if you can show true interest in Clojure / functional programming & thinking, your professional Java experience can only be a plus in my thinking. after all, Clojure is built on Java, and I think many of the best Clojure programmers out there came from just such a background - they were already strong in Java, but were looking for something "better".