[jlangemeier]

Focusing on the business need filled and results seems to be the best tactic here; we all hype ourselves, but if we were honest most of our work is boring "plumbing" to solve a business need. I mean, that's what we're hired to do, that's why we get paid; if we're not producing value for who we're working for, that relationship has broken down.

Most day-to-day "programming" can be broken down into that "Pair a datastore with a processor" idea, or "know enough about the problem to google/SO a fix or solution," so I don't think being honest about the mundane is a bad quality. Honestly, I think it's important enough, to make it at least a few of my questions on any formal interview, something akin to "what was a project that you thought would be simple but turned into something bigger, and how did you handle communication and management of it from that point forward?"