Trash like, they could recite some programming knowledge from books/classes, but once you asked them to start thinking on their own, they fell apart. For example, asking them to model a simple, scenario, such as orders, line items, customers, etc.... (but one in the domain I was hiring for). They had no clue how model it in a way that would work. Or, asking them to work through a problem, logically trying to solve something, or going through the steps they would use to solve a problem.

Sometimes if they made it far enough, I'd sit with them at a computer and ask them to do something fairly simple, but something they most likely hadn't done before, so they need to figure out how to... then watch how the interact with the IDE, how they figure out how to do something (they can use the internet, any tools, ask me, etc). And most of the time, they just fall flat on their face.

I've been a programmer for 15+ years and I'm very very good in the capabilities you say you're looking for.

I am also very business-minded having run my own outsource programming service overseas for the better part of a decade until I moved back to the USA 20 months ago.

Unfortunately I have learned that most companies in the USA these days are not willing to allow me to use the language in which I have developed and practiced my expertise for the past 15 years, regardless of how much faster I can produce for them in this language.

Instead most companies seen to hold out for programmers who know today's "popular" languages. So they lose out on my extensive background and experience, and I lose out on an opportunity to bring one of these companies the kind of service and performance they complain about not being able to find.

I'll give you one, in a previous project I was working on the requirements were C++/QT/J2ME/Android and I was the Jave guy. I had people coming who couldn't tell the difference between String and StringBuffer