A technical recruiter, having discovered that that the ways of Unix hackers were strange to him, sought an audience with Master Foo to learn more about the Way. Master Foo met the recruiter in the HR offices of a large firm.
The recruiter said, “I have observed that Unix hackers scowl or become annoyed when I ask them how many years of experience they have in a new programming language. Why is this so?”
Master Foo stood, and began to pace across the office floor. The recruiter was puzzled, and asked “What are you doing?”
“I am learning to walk,” replied Master Foo.
“I saw you walk through that door” the recruiter exclaimed, “and you are not stumbling over your own feet. Obviously you already know how to walk.”
“Yes, but this floor is new to me.” replied Master Foo.
Though I note that in real life the recruiter would never be enlightened. He is beholden to the HR departments, and the HR departments have settled on a system which works for their purposes.
Cute. Although there's some truth in that parable, back in the real world, experience in a specific programming language actually does count for something:
1) Learning the intricacies of a language takes some time before you're truly proficient in it.
2) Different languages demand a different approach to problems, a different style of forming the solution. A programmer with 10 years of experience in Ruby and 0 years of C is less desirable for a C programming position than a programmer with 5 years of experience in C. Though the Ruby programmer will be quick to pick up Python, he/she never had to deal with manual memory management, pointer arithmetic, and all the pitfalls that come with those.
The recruiter said, “I have observed that Unix hackers scowl or become annoyed when I ask them how many years of experience they have in a new programming language. Why is this so?”
Master Foo stood, and began to pace across the office floor. The recruiter was puzzled, and asked “What are you doing?”
“I am learning to walk,” replied Master Foo.
“I saw you walk through that door” the recruiter exclaimed, “and you are not stumbling over your own feet. Obviously you already know how to walk.”
“Yes, but this floor is new to me.” replied Master Foo.
Upon hearing this, the recruiter was enlightened.
--Raymond, Eric S., ed., "Master Foo and the Recruiter", Rootless Root, http://catb.org/esr/writings/unix-koans/recruiter.html
Though I note that in real life the recruiter would never be enlightened. He is beholden to the HR departments, and the HR departments have settled on a system which works for their purposes.