Sounds like the author is trying to work in places that just are not going to be worth him working for (immediately they're giving him red flags). If I got the sort of feedback he gets when applying at places I would find a whole region of programming to get involved in. Banking software jobs are not the only places to work at. It almost sounds more like "it looks like you're a very devoted developer, if I hire you, you may outshine everyone else here, including ourselves, sooo we're not going to hire you."