Dave,

"I actually went to a job interview for a DBA position and was asked if I knew T-SQL"

I hear ya!  I just had the same thing happen to me in an interview.  Makes you wonder about the folks asking the questions.  Hey, actually that question about TSQL may not be so bad. The other extreme is  where they ask you questions that are so remote, you are not sure how to answer them 'cause they are situations that might happen once or twice a year.  They call those stumper questions and I loathe them.  I do not consider myself advanced by any means so when I go in an interview, I get sick to my stomach waiting for the questions that make you lurch.  I am there because I answered an ad that I knew I was qualified for, not for the stumper guru DBA to kill me with. 

As for outsourcing, I thing that is a complete shame and a serious failure in customer satisfaction.  IT DOESN'T WORK!  These companies need to get what it does to their customer satisfication, although I'm sure it is all money driven and all they care about is the all mighty pocket lining.  They'll learn!