Self-Taught Java Dev Targeting NYC: Beyond Spring Boot/SSM, What Skills Maximize Junior Role Competitiveness?

Hi everyone,

I'm a self-taught developer targeting junior Java roles in NYC. I've built projects with:

Backend: Spring Boot, SSM (Spring MVC + MyBatis), REST APIs

Tools: Maven, Git, MySQL

Basic Frontend: HTML/CSS, JavaScript

To align with NYC job expectations, I'd like to focus on high-impact areas:

Technical Priorities:

Are cloud skills (AWS/Azure) or containerization (Docker/K8s) critical for junior roles?

Should I deepen testing (JUnit/Mockito) or learn microservices (Spring Cloud)?

Local Tool Trends:

Do NYC companies prefer specific CI/CD tools (Jenkins vs. GitLab)?

Is React/Angular familiarity expected for full-stack junior roles?

Portfolio Optimization:

Are cloud-deployed projects (e.g., AWS EC2) more impressive than local-hosted ones?

I aim to invest time strategically. Any NYC-specific insights would be greatly appreciated!