James did actually know a little about how horrible it was to keep applying for jobs and being turned down, even thought it was only secondhand via Remus. However, Severus Snape, a skilled wizard who did not have a condition like lycanthropy to hold him back, shouldn't have that trouble. Well, Remus shouldn't have it either, but James assumed something would turn up for Snape, and assumed Snape knew it. He had no such conviction for his friend.
"Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, not quite in disbelief but certainly in puzzlement. "Aren't you a little young to be a professor?"