It may be an oversimplification, but the best indicator I have seen for someone and their coding competence, is desire to get better. The best programmers I ha

It may be an oversimplification, but the best indicator I have seen for someone and their coding competence, is desire to get better. The best programmers I have ever worked with sought continual improvement personally. They viewed themselves and their career as a system that they monitored and acted upon. I focus on this because it is a factor that ignores the variables that often influence or weight the typical measures. Age, Experience, Education - all of these things affect the quality of work and the perception of skill so I have constantly sought that thing I can look to outside of that which is indicative of long term value. So far, desire to improve, is the best I have found. It sounds trivial yes, but people who actually embody this are very different than those who give lip service to it. Ask 100 programmers is they wish they were better and 99 will say yes (there is always one dude...). Ask those same 100 what they do each week to make themselves better and you find 10 or less actually doing the work in their spare time that it takes to become a master.