the "no good Perl jobs"/"no good Perl programmers" myth

[Ian Malpass]

David Cantrell wrote:

> At Outcome we have what I think is a very good test assignment that we
> give people.  They do it on-site, with docs available.  Then we go
> through their code with them and ask them to explain it.
> 
> Obviously the precise nature of the test is not something I want to talk
> about, but it not only seperates the good from the bad, it also
> seperates the excellent from the merely good.

My problem is, I think, that I don't have any idea where I am on the
scale myself. I haven't really worked with sufficient other Perl coders
to get a good sense of my abilities and, being self-taught, I've no
"formal" qualifications to compare things to either.

I'm happy enough to give talks on stuff at my local PM meetings, I've
contributed to CPAN (not that that's necessarily a good measure of 
anything, kwalitee notwithstanding), I've got a job writing Perl, but 
I'd still pause before applying for a job with "senior" in the title.

Not something that keeps me up at night, but it's still occasionally a 
bit unsettling.

Ian