Those are not the things that most developers do. When I'm hiring you, I need to know that you can write clean, maintainable, well tested code. We interface wit

Those are not the things that most developers do. When I'm hiring you, I need to know that you can write clean, maintainable, well tested code. We interface with SQL, web services, messaging, rules systems, etc. IE, the majority of development is not "low level", it is "high level". My company (Red Hat) is always looking to hire. Yes, there are lots of developers looking for work, but lots of them just are not very good. The shortage is a shortage of capable developers.