Grads of today or grads of yesterday

Sharing an experience... a few months ago I advertised for a Grad who has good jQuery skills. I received 40 applications, telephone interviewed 10, face-to-face interviewed 3. All whom had jQuery listed as "top skill" in their CV, said they love jQuery on the telephone but could not answer a few quick and simple queries i.e. when .ready() is used (simple query)… those who went though to the face-to-face interview I gave them a laptop and asked them to complete a very quick exercise using jQuery only. I said not to worry if you don't get it working, I just want to see their attempts to see if they're thinking was right. 2 of them edited the HTML and CSS areas - which I clearly said not to do (so they failed by not listening), the third person showed me nothing, literally. They typed a lot, but when I said times up, they deleted everything and the box was empty. I asked why, they said it wasn't right. I then said to take the test home and practice for a week, then send it to me. A week later, they emailed saying they can't do it. There was meant to be a 4th face to face interview, but she said on the morning of the interview that her part time employer had asked her to do a last minute shift, which meant she couldn't come to my career/permanent opportunity position.

Me... when I was a Grad, I was asked if I knew what HTML was. I said all I knew was the 404 HTML error screen. I didn't lie, but the temp agency placed me in a web team because I knew more than them (odd, I know). That web team was disappointed at first, for the agency sending me, but gave me a chance anyway. They said if I don't learn HTML by the end of the day, they won't want me back the next day. I knuckled down and ended up keeping that job for 2+ years. They offered a permanent entry-level manager role - for the next 5 years.

Where are the grads of today with the desire of the grads like in my day? They just don't seem to want to do the graft needed at the beginning. Life is not all roses... and btw... I consider my best years for learning (when I soaked up knowledge like there's no tomorrow)… was when I started that entry-level manager role.