Why do companies expect so many languages from a junior?

[ArielLeslie]

I’m going to quote my own post here:

@ArielLeslie

Some reasons why this happens

• “Aim for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll fall among the stars.” – some bullshit motivational poster, probably
  Companies are going to describe their dream candidate. They may know that they aren’t going to get her, but this is how they get as close as possible.
• That list of skills is really something like(JavaScript && ((react.js || angular || 5 years experience) && (java || c++ || C#) || (embedded systems || objective C || automation))))
  Basically, they want someone with a reasonable (yes, actually reasonable) combination of the skills and technologies they use. They know you will have to learn on the job, but they want to see someone who has the foundation to learn quickly and successfully.
• The post was written by a professional recruiter, not the manager who needs a programmer
  The recruiter may be working off a list of all technologies used at the company. The recruiter may be working off of out-of-date or bad information. In the case of the job I eventually got, the recruiter asked for an example resume of an ideal candidate. My manager gave him the resume of one of our team members. That resume included a background in C#. The job posting and my phone screening with the recruiter mentioned C#. The team does not use C# at all.