[HR is] Just dreaming of that special someone?

A few years back I remember reading a number of articles about how poorly written many job ads were.  They went on about how HR people tended to focus on existing skillsets without considering that most programming jobs involved constantly learning new tools and techniques.  The most common example was job ads looking for 10+ years of Java programming experience.

It doesn't look like the situation has changed much, I found this posting on Dice.com today.

Title:Ruby on Rails Developer

Skills:5+ years Ruby on Rails programming experience

Date:3-30-2009

Description:

* At least 5 years Ruby on Rail programming experience
* Good understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, XSD, XSLT and AJAX preferred
* Hands experience with Linux & MySQL a plus
* Python / Java Swing a plus

According to Wikipedia, the creator of Ruby on Rails, "[David] Heinemeier Hansson first released Rails as open source in July 2004".  If I'm doing my math right, David should be eligible to apply for this position this summer.  I first used Ruby on Rails in October of 2004 and will just have to wait.

Mark