I found this interesting because it reflects my experience that companies in tech seem to hire for a list of skills, but the actual job rarely reflects that.

As to _why_ this happens, I think it's probably more boring structural reasons (the person writing the job post likely isn't the direct manager of the role) rather than malice or incompetence.

In any case it's worth a read. I found this via a webring [0] which I haven't come across in a while!

[0] https://akols.com/ also contains Ludic, who has featured on here a few times

> creating a relational database in Excel with tables being Excel files in a folder, because the stakeholder refused to let go of the Excel no matter how many times I told them I could do it in a better, easier way

I feel this pain. All of our jobs are quoted with a copy of the most complex Excel sheet I've ever created. Our "task management" is an excel sheet full of notes; imagine a series of walls full of post-it notes, you know, like Jira but way worse.

Not as bad as some things I've seen though. Seems to be common for Japanese folk to use Excel for CAD drawings and that just blows my mind. How is that not the worst possible CAD experience?

Ditto -- my experience too.

    in algebraic notation ...

The client thinks they need x, asks for y, when you deliver z they tell you it is all wrong, what they really wanted was a,b,c but couldn't admit to not knowing how to ask for it. You hack z to deliver d and then you find out the manager has left for a new job and the new manager wants e,f,g,h,i,j,k.