Adrian - always good to hear from a new voice.

I'll jump on board with the 'nice to have' group. There's nothing wrong with hoping that a new hire can hit the ground running with minimal mentoring. Of course, I hope the employer is willing to pay for higher levels of experience.

On the other hand, if an employer is too sticky about this during the interview process, I think it's a red flag. It's often an excuse for poor managers who don't have the foggiest idea of what's going on in their department. They don't want to mentor someone because they don't know how!

Many of you have seen the 'demotivational poster' series (if not, click on http://www.despair.com). Some of them are very funny. One of my favorites is "Tradition" - it's a picture of the Spanish 'running with the bulls' event with the caption, "Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid." 'Industry experience' may mean someone has been doing it all wrong for a long, long time. In this case poor managers who hide behind the 'only experienced need to reply' banner deserve what they get.