Western firms do this too, but not to the same degree.

Next find out how long, what level of experience, and what type of problems they have solved.

However what I learnt coming into college was that one should never compare their skills or levels of success with other people.

I come from a generation for whom the books and records on the shelf signaled, in some way, who you were (starting with the fact that you were a person who owned books or records or CDs).

However, this may demonstrate the power of specificity rather than anything to do with technology popularity.