What's tricky is combining what you've learned at home with what you didn't do in production at work. In finance, most places are only beginning to use cloud services and barely tickling Docker (at least unless you are in cutting edge groups). And yet hiring managers want to see 5 years of experience in AWS, Docker...
It's not an issue to learn it, I already have started.
Regarding it's a property of the places I'm interviewing at..
.. there's a startup boom in NYC. And I think startups prefer young, dynamic types on the cheap? A buddy of mine from California says this is the Silicon Valley mindset creeping in. I'm not so sure, but there is something about startups and not hiring too many older folks.
1 - Contract is ending soon and I'm scouring for a new one or FTE role while wading through strange interviews and lots of recruiters. This sort of gives me a sense.
2 - Outside of work is fine! I already spend 3-4 hours a week on personal tech reading. The issue is, you can read Docker all you want - companies want to see it in production. What do they ask?
"How many years of experience do you have in production with AWS/Docker/Kubernetes"