I think the key quote here is : > "Listen, the very last thing I want is to sound ungrateful. At that first job, I learned all of those things I listed, and mo

I think the key quote here is : > "Listen, the very last thing I want is to sound ungrateful. At that first job, I learned all of those things I listed, and more, because the senior engineers patiently sat with me and put up with my stupid questions and never got frustrated with me, even when I got frustrated with myself. But it took me more than a year." So, you tell me a company succesfully trained you, fresh out of school, in a little more than a year ? It seems to me their recruitment process was actually very good ! Had they pick someone clueless about maths, but good at everything else you listed, they may have never successfully trained her in years. Of course, maybe maths wasn't relevant at all for the job, in which case it probably was a bad process still, but without more information, it looks correct to me.