Re: Could Perlmonks be used as a reference?

[chromatic]

Perhaps a better question would be, "What can a high level on Perlmonks demonstrate?"

In my case, it's on my CV for several reasons. First, to show that I've participated in a fairly successful technical forum for a year and a half. Second, to show that I'm a fairly-well respected contributor. Third, as an example of some of my programming, and my progress over the past months.

That's not a substitute for providing example code or a guarantee for how I might work with a team, but it looks pretty good in a biography. ("Hey, this guy's reviewed several programming books and is a high-level poster at a programming site. Maybe he has something worth saying.")

[Abigail]

I don't mention Perlmonks on my resume, because if you mention Perlmonks, should you mention mailinglists and Usenet groups you participate in as well? Mongers memberships? Your CPAN id? My resume is 3 pages, but all I say about Perl is:

Besides having 17 years of experience with Unix, I am very experienced with Perl, and a contributing member of its community. I was a major tech reviewer of [list of books], and a tech reviewer of [list of books].

contributing member of its community covers it all I think. It gives a possible opening in an interview, but it avoids questions like "what are Perlmonks?". Or strange associations. Don't assume a possible employer knows anything about the Perl community, let alone Perlmonks.

-- Abigail