[_delirium]

That sounds about right, although it does indicate how programming jobs are fairly different from traditional engineering jobs. What you describe with new graduates is not far from what engineering companies have traditionally actually wanted. The expectation is that the university teaches the fundamentals, both "pure" fundamentals like math and physics, and also classes of techniques like finite-element modeling. But becoming proficient with applying a specific finite-element-modeling package within the context of a particular engineering domain, workflow, and procedures: that's more the responsibility of a new-hire training program. Of course completely new graduates will typically take longer to get up to speed than people with years of work experience in a similar job, but that's also why junior engineers get paid less.