Ridiculous - This is pointless has nothing to do with that year it is. Companies who need students who know differential equations or linear algebra have always had these requirements (even before computers or programming languages existed). There is no way a humanities student knows this stuff and no way a company wants expend the resources to have them to learn DE on the job...

He applied for a job where knowledge and/or experience in complex mathematics was required and did not get the job because he lacked the qualifications. how is this interesting or even news???