Yeah, I don't agree with several of these "assumptions" and it def sounds like an engineer protesting that somehow their multiple experience is obviously a qual

Yeah, I don't agree with several of these "assumptions" and it def sounds like an engineer protesting that somehow their multiple experience is obviously a qualification for any job they think they can do. > Much of the job involves tasks unrelated to writing $TECHNOLOGY. True but doesn't negate the point that you want previous experience. Also think the OP is exagerating the other work that most of us do > Engineers who already have experience can often pick up new ones quickly. Common statement but again, fairly obviously wrong. Are you telling me that just because you know "stuff" that if I wanted someone to do e.g. Elasticsearch, that they could create production-quality work in a short time? How long does it take in real experience to get good at these things? DOes generic experience help? Almost certainly, that much? Not compared to someone who has already produced decent quality e.g. Elasticsearch > Experience with different paradigms can make them better at writing all kanguages. Completely disagree. Writing Java, C#, F# etc. is VERY different, much more than the superficial similarities. Again, I could learn Java more easily with C# but still not be as good as someone who has written Java already. > An engineer with other experiences might help you consider future alternatives. And conversely, they might steer you towards what they are comfortable with even if it isn't a good fit. > You might not be using it in the medium/long term. No. But I'm using it now and my devs might not even be working for me in a years time so why choose someone who might be useful in the future over someone who can do stuff now? > May not be something that many people have experience of. Maybe not but that is a different issue. If I cannot find people with the experience then maybe I will have to employ somebody that doesn't have such a matching skillset and maybe it will work. Otherwise, I will definitely start with people who have cut their teeth on what I am using and don't have to learn all of those, "yeah, that doesn't work in C#" things.