> If that company really ruled you out because you had 7 years of C# experience, and not 7 years of Java experience, you likely dodged a bullet.
Respectfully, I disagree. Things that you should learn over 7 years of experience go far beyond learning the language itself or the fundamentals of its standard library. We're talking about two very different ecosystems.
Yeah, there's some truth to both your points. If you need to backfill someone for an existing production project that doesn't have the bandwidth to train them effectively you are setting that person up to fail. This is why tech interviewing is such a pain in the ass though as there are a lot of competent programmers who can pick up new languages quickly. When we decide on who to hire while at megacorp it is always - generalist or specialist. When we decided on who to hire while at a start up it was always - growth minded and quick learner.
> We're talking about two very different ecosystems.
Are we talking about the vast differences between Akka and Akka.NET? ;-)
Honestly, to the extent the ecosystems are different, it is probably more valuable to add someone to a team with experience with a different ecosystem unless there is literally no one on the team with experience with the current one (and in that case, you might question your commitment). Yes, it takes a while to learn a given ecosystem thoroughly, but that's not really what is going to drive the productivity of your team.
Respectfully, I disagree. Things that you should learn over 7 years of experience go far beyond learning the language itself or the fundamentals of its standard library. We're talking about two very different ecosystems.