Ask HN: what was your first programming gig, and how much did you actually know?

Looking at job adverts for software engineers, it seems that life is rosy if you have a couple years J2EE and/or .NET under your belt. By rosy I mean you can be fairly confident of finding a steady job, and can start setting your sights on (much) more lucrative/interesting positions by expanding your knowledge.

But as someone still in the education process, a lot of job postings I glance at and find myself caught in two minds. One half says 'They're looking for a lot of skills. You can't honestly say you're adept at the majority of those requirements. You need to put in a lot more hard work before they'll take you seriously.' But the other half says 'Hell, you don't know TechnologyX per se, but you could pick it up no problem. You've worked on harder problems than they're likely to throw at you. You'd be doing them a favour by applying.'

So I'm wondering what the professional developers here found in their first jobs. Were you under-qualified? Overqualified? Lucky to find one? Blagged the interview? Winged it? Needn't have worried? I'd like to hear the story.