[nine_k]

Unless it's some revolutionary tech, like Haskell to a C programmer, the problem-solving skills and good knowledge of general principles would let you study it to a reasonable level in a reasonably short time.

That is, if you understand the ideas behind Smalltalk well enough, you will have no trouble picking up Ruby, Python, or even PHP; swap the initial language to taste.

If you are a beginner and the amount of ideas you know is limited by the two languages and a framework you picked up so far, then yes, matching a checklist of an employer is more about the specific tech. The farther from that, the less.

[itamarst]

Exactly. As a newly minted programmer you're stuck with those lists, or ideally a company that's intelligent enough to be willing to invest in training (sadly too few of those).

Once you're experienced you can start treating those lists as nice-to-haves, if you have the right core skills and present yourself the right way.