I feel much the same way as you do, as someone also approching level 7.

I can write a perl program to do what I want it to do. But.... I still feel much like a newbie to programming in general, despite having been doing it for years now in some form or another.

And I feel this way despite seeming to have a fair knowledge of perl syntax, methodologies and intracacies, an idea of modules availible and some experience with a decentish selection of them and knowledge of how to get to most of the information I might need to do most of anything in perl.

However having never made anything other then tools, toys and projects for my own interest, desires or training, I feel I have not actually progressed to a truly 'useful' stage as a programmer.

So I spend some time on perlmonks answering people's questions. This I feel has been useful to me as searching through the docs for some obscure useage or module has expanded my perl knowledge. I don't always get the answer right. I don't always answer with the right detail, as furthur followups by other monks leave my feeble suggestions behind. But I still do help other people in their projects at times. But my own projects still feel like those of a newbie, with no true grasp of programming or perl.