>But here's the catch. "Everybody" is not looking for the average programmer. They are looking for the top 1% of applicants. IME that's market dependent. One o

>But here's the catch. "Everybody" is not looking for the average programmer. They are looking for the top 1% of applicants. IME that's market dependent. One of the reasons I left Singapore was because it was abundantly clear that almost all employers had neither the ability to accurately assess programming talent nor the inclination. They all wanted average drones, cheaper the better. Moreover, actual competence is routinely confused with the ability to recite algorithms you'll never need to implement, encyclopedic knowledge of obscure APIs or a stint working at a high profile employer. So yea, in theory most companies want the top 1% of programmers but I'm sure that most wouldn't even recognize them if they saw them.