[code-blooded]

The way I see it, is that being able to demonstrate specialist-level skills in something is a good signal no matter the problem you need to solve. It means you can learn. As a specialist you have already shown ability to master a skill, so if a project needs another skill, you will be able to pick it up.

And quite often that's how you solve client problems as a contractor. You figure out what the actual problem is (in business terms), the cost/benefits of various solutions and then learn whatever you need to solve the problem. Only then you get to write code.

The funny thing is that you may be a ninja Rust developer, but sometimes all the client needs is a cron job to move data from a spreadsheet to a server. Or even worse, you may need to modify VBA scripts in an ancient Excel file!