There's always someone brighter, so there's no use worrying about it.

When I was finishing my Computer Science degree, I started applying to jobs. I ended up getting a job as an intern at an all-Perl shop, even though I didn't know any Perl at the time. They were impressed with my enthusiasm and figured that I would be a quick learner, so I got hired.

This Perl shop turned out to have a lot of really good Perl programmers - a former Pump King, several people with core perl patches, etc. While this was somewhat intimidating at first, I tried to view it as what it was - a great opportunity to learn Perl from those who are really good at it. I've been there for almost 2 years, and I'm still learning every day (not as an intern any more, of course).

You don't have to work at a Perl-only shop to get to be able to code a lot of Perl at work. When I worked at a large video game company as an intern, all of the back ends were coded in C++ and the front ends in Flash, with the tools being written mostly in C#. However, there was a large body of glue code in the build system, source control system, etc., all written in Perl. Perl is such a versatile language - it's hard to find a company that wouldn't benefit from some Perl knowledge.

Keep searching, keep sending out serious applications, try to come across as bright and eager, and you'll land something you like!


In reply to Re: Always someone better than you? by geekphilosopher
in thread Always someone better than you? by Ace128

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