". Your mentor takes one look and says "the service can't find the database - point it to localhost:8900." You wait until he/she steps away from the desk, and then you anxiously google what the hell they just said. You did some SQL in your databases class, but these people are using an eight-node Cassandra cluster "because we have too much data for postgreSQL.""

Very few "elite" colleges teach a software engineer this type of practical experience. I want to debunk your feeling that if you had gone to a higher ranked college, you mysteriously would have been taught every piece of tech out there - this is markedly false - there are so many technologies, it's very common to be completely new to at least one when starting a new job.

This is merely a sign that the company has a bad onboarding process. Although, I have to admit its happened to me at many companies as well - i believe some see it as a sink-or-swim right of passage. Even though it's stupid - it does (in a misguided way) set the tone and test if you have what it takes to be a software engineer, specifically, that you have a relentless grit to just 'figure it out'. Again, sort of stupid imho.