Comment by Aurornis

> There are any number of great candidates who could be proficient in Python -

I don't think you understand.

You have to prioritize. You can't interview everyone.

There may be someone in the rejection pool who might be able to pick up Python quickly and enjoy it. It does not matter if I have 10 people who can bring 5 years of Python experience to the first day on the job, and 1-2 more people who can bring 10+ years and probably teach us something about Python.

> the skills are very transferrable. (It's like trying to find a painter and filtering out people who have never painted a brown houses)

I've painted houses. I've done programming. This analogy is not good at all. Some people don't adapt well to new programming languages. Some people try, then decide they hate the new language and start looking for new jobs. You don't have to risk any of this when you already have more Python applicants than interview slots.