Is C++ still worth learning when job listings barely mention it?

Lately I’ve been scrolling through job boards. Backend, full-stack, AI, cloud- lots of Python, Go, Rust. C++ roles are rare. I wonder if it’s just my region or everyone’s seeing the same fade.

When I interviewed last month for a systems role, they asked me to explain move semantics and lifetime of temporaries. I squeezed something about rvalue references, but in my head I was screaming: “Does any company still care about this in production?” Yet later I saw a Reddit thread saying C++ is still heavy in finance, embedded, robotics, and high-performance domains.

A senior dev told me this: “If you can speak templates, memory models, threading without fear, you’ll outshine those who only know high-level stuff.” That stuck. In another interview, they were debugging a segfault on a server-side C++ service, and my ability to trace through stack frames won me half points—even though the role didn’t emphasize “C++” in the title.

Still, many listings say “experience in C++ is a plus” rather than a requirement. It feels like a framing issue. (Maybe “systems, performance, low latency” are the real signals.) If I were writing a resume now, I’d show a toy project- say a small event loop + custom allocator- or contribute to a performance-critical open source piece. That gives a talking point in interviews beyond just “I studied C++ in school.”

I don’t mean to say C++ guarantees a job, but in some corners, it still feels like a secret weapon.

https://redd.it/1nv7tfd
@r_cpp