I agree that industry or sector experience is far less important than technical ability unless you are facing off directly against the user community, which is rarely the case in DBA and developer roles. A technically able person will pick up the industry stuff as they need it.

Far more important these days, with the decline in in-house bespoke development, is experience of package and system integration.

Of course, it has always been tough establishing your technical credibility in an IBM mainframe shop without some years served under your belt.