3-5 years of linux system administration experience 3-5 years of windows 2000/2010 administration experience 3-5 years of networking level tcp/ip experience with custom protocols 3-5 years of c++ experience 3-5 years of .net experience 3-5 years of .....

I think more than half the job postings out there are created by entry/mid level hr persons who find similar job descriptions on other sites and copy paste requirements. This then has propagated into monster job descriptions you see now.

I noted this as well, for the pay these companies are offering, anyone with that level of experience they are asking for would laugh and move on. It's almost as if it's a trojan horse of a job post. Only those stupid enough to apply to a job post like that are the kinds of employees they are looking for.