The real question seems to be: What is this hypothetical corporation looking for? If my company wants someone that can come in and start coding from day 1 then

The real question seems to be: What is this hypothetical corporation looking for? If my company wants someone that can come in and start coding from day 1 then yes I want someone that already knows language x well, and can show me samples right now. I am deliberately overlooking your alleged ability to quickly pick up new technologies. If I am looking for someone to join the company for the long term and I am willing to train, then I might care more about your ability to learn quickly (but you better be ready to prove it...) and little about what you know now. In the real world, what I am looking for most of the time is in between. I want someone that I can assume will be with the company for a long time so they need to be able to learn and adapt as we change. But I also want someone that can be productive without a huge lead up time so they need to already know something really close to language x if not language x itself. In short, I normally want some of both and your alleged ability to quickly pick things up is not being overlooking, but it is only one part of the equation and I seriously want you to have something close to language X already.