From when you receive the project until when you run the project. Should I just expect the bag of files I'm given to actually run right the first time?!

BOTH ARE TRUE. And I can be convicted with conviction of possessing the intellect of a converted convict.

I fancy myself a 'good' programmer, as do most employed coders i suppose. But one thing that being a good programmer doesn't make you good at is setting up projects. I actually had to turn down a job as the 'sole web programmer' at a makeup start-up because I couldn't setup the project in 8 hours. I tried the for my WHOLE first day of employment to setup that project and went home as a failure. I was too darn ashamed too return the next day and give another hopeless attempt. So as I am in setup HELL with this dang nabbit c++ and starting a new HELL MODE, I just want to know how much time would yall estimate you've spent in Project Setup HELL? 50 hours lifetime total is my estimate.