[dennis_jeeves]

>I guess I just want confirmation - is this industry only for people who very self motivated and don't expect any hand-holding?

The hand-holding part is correct. The 'self-motivated' part, well, I'd rephrase that as earnest corporate slave. If one is not an earnest corporate slave the job can be potentially soul sucking.

About the training part, while the language/framework hand holding is not expected the system specific architecture and specifics hand holding is indeed a must. Most teams skim or do not pay sufficient attention to the latter, resulting in a new hire not coming upto speed as quickly as he would ideally have.