If you have read Cracking the Coding Interview, the author describes a guy who was hired in her company because there was super shortage of developers. The guy barely knew HTML. He used to come late to office, play ping pong and take off before sundown.

I believe things were quite similar in India during the dotcom bubble. Candidates were asked to do some addition programs, hir d immidietely, and within weeks their H1B was sponsored.