Do I have your attention?  I thought so...

But really, there's some truth to the title of this post, at least from what I'm seeing whenever we open up a requisition for a new developer and begin interviewing.  ColdFusion has been around for a while now, so we're seeing resumes from developers with over a decade of experience.  What we're not seeing are developers with enterprise level experience on enterprise software solutions.  Is that because ColdFusion isn't deployed in the enterprise?  No, that can't be it... We know that it is!  So what gives?

Here's a quote from the comments on another blog:

The "Jobs available" argument is spent. Yeah, there are more .Net and PHP jobs out there, but there are more developers available for that work too. Those positions, in my view of the market, pay less, and well they should - it's a race to the bottom and the supply is plentiful.

ColdFusion is niche, and niche pays more. You want PHP/.NET developers to realize the power of CF, embrace it, see it as a viable language? Be careful what you wish for!

Is this really true?  Am I expected to pay more because you're a ColdFusion developer instead of a .NET developer?  Because guess what... I won't!  If you're unable to demonstrate a senior level skill level after a senior level detailed technical interview, and I mean TECHNICAL in the true sense of the word, then you will not be "paid more."  If you indicate that you use the createObject() function in ColdFusion and are therefore familiar with object oriented programming but you cannot define polymorphism, I'll recognize your potential to be trained but will NOT consider you a highly paid resource.  Screw "niche!"

In my entire career, and I am not exaggerating, I have accepted job offers and have been presented with job offers by people who haven't asked me one single technical question about my experience in ColdFusion.  I've been asked what versions I've used, what IDEs I've used, what size teams I've worked with, what frameworks I've used, but nothing to indicate whether or not I understand and use any of the intermediate or advanced ColdFusion functions or how I've used ColdFusion to solve advanced or complex business problems.

I have never been asked what the CFQUERYPARAM tag does.  I have never been asked how to prevent a race condition.  I have never been asked to define encapsulation.  I have never been asked how to roll back a SQL transaction in the event of an error.  And when we ask questions like that in the interviews we conduct, most applicants seem really taken aback.  And honestly, few do well under the pressure.

My point is that our community is full of bright developers with huge potential, but our community has some growing up to do.  Our small size shouldn't confuse us into thinking we should be paid more than our Java and .NET counterparts, however, many of whom perform exceptionally well with our team's interview style.  It's all about your skill.  Period.