So many frameworks... so much alphabet soup on the resumes.
Anyone that ever reads The Server Side or Monster.com knows exactly which boxes to hit when they're writing a resume. The recruiters telegraph their needs a mile away. (Usually because they couldn't care less about the differences or similarities between Struts, JSF, WebWork, etc.) As long as the candidate knows how to spell Spring and Hibernate, they'll get submitted to the "preferred vendor" system.
Being one of those candidates is tough, but that's not the part I'm concerned about now. I'm interested in weeding out the know-nothings, the poseurs, and the fast talkers.
When I'm interviewing somebody, my main criterion is this: would I want to work on a two-person project with this candidate? My secondary criterion is "Would I feel comfortable leaving this person along at a client site? Will they deliver value to the client? Will they look like an idiot, and by extension, make me look like an idiot?"
My friend Dion Stewart had a great idea for a weed-out question. No matter what frameworks the candidate shows on the resume, ask them what they disliked the most about the framework. (I have my top three list for each framework I've worked in... except NeXT's Enterprise Objects Framework. But that's another story.)
If they can't answer at all, then they haven't actually worked with the framework. They're just playing buzzword bingo.
If they answer, but it sounds like bullshit, then odds are they're bullshitting you.
If they have never thought about it, haven't formed an opinion, or say "it's all good", then they lack passion about what they do.
A candidate that is driven, that cares about the quality-without-a-name should be able to go on a rant about something in each framework they've actually worked with. In fact, you've really hit the jackpot if your candidate <i>can</i> go on a rant, but does it in a professional, reasoned way. I love to see a candidate that can show some fire without seeming like a loon. That's when I can see how they'll react when the client makes a decision the candidate considers boneheaded. (I've seen some spectacular pyrotechnics from consultants that forgot whose money they're spending. But that's another story.)