The most successful industry in history can't shoot straight when it comes to hiring. Yet employers reject the vast majority of their applicants for programming positions without even an interview. Many of those rejects would be highly productive workers.
Employers do admit to being picky.
Java, for example. Yet this obsession with specific software skills is unwarranted. What counts is overall programming talent. Studies have shown that the sharpest programmers are as much as ten times as productive as the weakest ones, finishing projects ten times faster. Yet most employers will not hire a programmer on this basis.