[mgkimsal]

Mostly agreed. I think the term 'junior' can be applied to people with 0-5 years, but the number is somewhat arbitrary, and depends a lot on what was done during that time. If the person had escalating responsibilities while being mentored appropriately, they'd definitely be out of 'junior' status quickly.

I've met people with far more than 5 years experience who really are still 'junior' when it comes to the ability to program. They might rock at PHP or Rails or Wordpress or whatnot, but mostly are reusing existing libs without understanding how it actually works, and couldn't replicate anything on their own.

The balance the OP needs to find is being able to promote their accomplishments and skills without the usual inflated cockiness that seems to come across in many resumes. What's even weirder is many people I meet aren't like that in real life, but reading their resumes, it reads as if they are. I keep thinking "there's gotta be a better way" then think "I guess there is - word of mouth networking".