How to find files in the Finder I think I'm doing something wrong with my use of the Finder, but I can't tell what.

I was trying to find a .jar file, and I realize I don't know whether the Finder can't find it or it doesn't exist.  So I started looking for folders and files that I know exist, to confirm or deny that the Finder is getting the right commands from me.

There is a folder at ~/.m2/, and when I look for it in the Finder, it can't find it.  I also searched for a file within the ~/.m2/ directory, and it couldn't find that.  

This is where I'm confused.  Sometimes, the Finder returns results quickly, and other times, I'm not really sure if anything is happening or not.  Right now, it says 'Searching 'All My Files'" as the title of the Finder window.  Does that mean the search is still in progress?  Or is that just a title?  I'm not sure.

It also doesn't say, "Search done, found X results" or "Search in progress", or anything.  There's no pinwheel, no information.  I have no idea whether it's still preforming a search or not.

What am I doing wrong?  How do I use the Finder to find my files?

The hardware I'm using is Macbook Pro, OS version 10.12.4.
~/.m2/ has a dot as the first character of the directory name. This is a hidden folder, so isn't indexed by Spotlight. Finder won't find this because it's not in Spotlight's index. Rename the folder without the dot for the folder to be indexed.

Searching with Finder uses Spotlight so should be near-instantaneous. You can show the status bar with View → Show Status Bar (⌘/) and a pinwheel will appear at the right of the bar when Finder is still searching, disappearing after the search is complete.