&#62; It's been 9.5 years since that first programming job, and it still feels like I have a really long way to go before I'm actually a world-class programmer.<p>It's interesting how as we get more experience, we become a more aware of the shortcomings of our knowledge and skill. It's been ~9.5 years for me as well (took an systems/ops job that involved a great deal of programming in Nov 2000 as a junior in HS, was "writing code" before that) and I'm only now learning how much more there is for me to learn.