god, maybe it is just me, but I really hate the term "We are a ruby/java/python SHOP". Sounds too much like a sweatshop. Plus any company/group that says we are insert language shop, means that they are either too big and not fun, or too narrow-minded (if they are a small team), to just anchor with one language.
Language is just an expression of what you want to do.
I have used python, java, lua, c, in my career, and often find that a certain language might be much better for certain tasks, and limiting/labeling a whole company to one language is just not attractive.
Couldn't agree more. If I was hiring I'd be less interested in the # of patches you've submitted to Rails and more interested in examples of how you've solved problems, in code (irrespective of the language) and in other parts of your life. Speaking of other parts of your life, I'd also really like to know you HAVE other parts of your life and you're not spending every evening chowing Cheetos with the local Ruby guys. That's totally great now and then but I'd want healthy, happy, diverse and interesting employees, not just zombie Ruby monkeys who only read DHH, et al blogs and can't think for themselves. (To be totally clear I've always had the impression that most of the people like DHH in the Ruby community also expect their community members to think for themselves as well and engage in healthy debate.)
Shop is a fairly traditional (slang-ish, more like jargon) term for business. Talking shop and all that.. Still, I agree, it's not as common to hear these days and does have weird connotations now.
personally i think opensource contributions are a mainstay. if you aren't already doing this, it's to bad b/c it helps. this advice doesn't apply just to rubyonrails either, but it's cool to read as a reminder.
Language is just an expression of what you want to do. I have used python, java, lua, c, in my career, and often find that a certain language might be much better for certain tasks, and limiting/labeling a whole company to one language is just not attractive.