If there’s one certainty in this industry, it’s the ongoing hilarity of job ads. David Heinemeier Hansson found a job ad that mentions “Rails” in the same breath as “enterprise” and “whitepaper”, and “struts” in the same breath as “latest and greatest”:

Should have ideally 5 years experience with all of the latest and greatest tools out there. The more the better. J2EE, struts, Ruby on Rails, Websphere, etc. Should have experience constructing Enterprise wide Java solutions from whitepapers.

“Why yes, I just pushed the Rational Rose Activationate button and Rose generated the Enterprise wide Java solution for me, along with the whitepaper. I didn’t even have to tell it anything first. Does that count?”

David’s reaction:

Rails has truly broken through the awareness barrier when its included as part of a job application that’s the antithesis of everything Rails is about. Clueless recruiters of the world, I salute you!

The “Must have 5 years Java” requirement, at a time when Java was barely out of the Sun Labs, have become legendary. There can be no finer way to attract dishonest candidates than to construct an infinitely high hurdle. I’ll donate a Pragmatic Rails text to whoever spots the first serious (as in seriously misguided) Rails equivalent.