From: Peter Hickman <peter@...>
Date: 2007-12-11T20:33:16+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby certification

Mark Woodward wrote:
> Interviewer: "What languages have you used?"
> Me: "Java/J2EE, Perl, PHP, javascript, C, C++, Ruby"
> Interviewer: "That's good. How would you rate your level of expertise
> in these languages"
> Me: "um .. beginner in all of them"
> Interviewer: "Is it time for coffee?"
>
>   

Well in this area at least it is possible to improve yourself, as a Perl 
programmer do you have any modules on CPAN that sound useful and are 
being used or that you are contributing to. Same goes for all the other 
languages. I got a job as a web developer after submitting my Perl code 
for genetic algorithms (which incidentally *still* hasn't made it onto 
CPAN).

With a little mercenary attitude you could join an existing project and 
start to make some contributions, starting small with writing docs, 
testing and patching bugs. There are some companies that will be quite 
impressed with this. Do not underestimate how good contributing to an 
open source project can look on your CV. If nothing it gives the 
interviewer something to ask you questions about to get a handle on what 
type of person you are.

But I must stress the mercenary aspect here, it is better to be a small 
fish in a big pool than a big fish in a small pool. Helping out on the 
Cocoon project even if you barely get name checked is better than being 
head honcho of some wannabe me too web framework.

And even after you get the job it still pays, in terms of your CV, to 
keep contributing to open source projects.