Those are good points. It's just frustering for someone in DC that all the good jobs are in SF. (Except for yours of course :-) but I haven't done any RoR )
Here's another thing that's really bothered me as a job seeker.
Most employers will say something like you did "I'm not just hiring engineers to produce lines of code: I'm hiring them for their wide-ranging intelligence.." but then proceed to ask me excruciatingly detailed trivia during the interview, or require someone have X years of experience in some technology. If you're hiring for intelligence, should it really matter if the employee hasn't use technology X before? He should be able to learn quickly.
Perhaps your case is different though. RoR is more like a movement than just a technology so maybe it's a good indicator of sucess for a candidate to have already used it.
When large companies say something like "I'm hiring them for their wide-ranging intelligence.." they are usually lying their ass off but in startups that usually is true.
From my experience in startups, most of them care just as much about your 2 cents as about your LOC.
Because startups are much more malleable and prone to change their direction, strategy, market & product every input matters and sometimes you can recoup your entire hiring cost for an engineer from a single sentence he says offhand in some discussion.
Here's another thing that's really bothered me as a job seeker.
Most employers will say something like you did "I'm not just hiring engineers to produce lines of code: I'm hiring them for their wide-ranging intelligence.." but then proceed to ask me excruciatingly detailed trivia during the interview, or require someone have X years of experience in some technology. If you're hiring for intelligence, should it really matter if the employee hasn't use technology X before? He should be able to learn quickly.
Perhaps your case is different though. RoR is more like a movement than just a technology so maybe it's a good indicator of sucess for a candidate to have already used it.