How to determine our AHK skill level? Topic is solved

[letacio]

Hello there!

I was wondering, i've been using ahk for 2 years now, and besides doing very nice stuff, i find new nice features (like message passing/http calls) everyday. So i never know how much "good" or "experienced" in ahk I am.

I want to put this on my resume actually, but i'm not sure what to write.

Could anyone share some parameters to determine one's skill level?

For instance:

Basic -> What functions/features you need to know to say you are basic user. for instance, hotkey creation.
intermediate -> same. for instance, http calls?
Advance -> same. message passing?
Expert -> same -> ????

Thanks in advance!

[swagfag]

this is hard to judge since a lot of the more powerful functionality lies outside the scope of ahk in and of itself. eg, COM and DllCalls(basically the entire winapi), html guis, programming practices, etc

so purely in terms of ahk:

• basic: makes simple Send, Click, Image/PixelSearch hotkey/hotstring scripts with no consideration of common programming practices, lots of copypasting, little to no comprehension, programming by accident
• medium: text processing, guis, is aware of all functions/language features, applies some programming concepts
• advanced: knows all functions/language features and their interactions or is able to derive them, applies them appropriately, uses low level stuff properly where appropriate, scripts are portable and maintainable
• expert: modifies source to fix bugs, introduce new features, tailor ahk to their needs

[SOTE]

Hello there!

I was wondering, i've been using ahk for 2 years now, and besides doing very nice stuff, i find new nice features (like message passing/http calls) everyday. So i never know how much "good" or "experienced" in ahk I am.

I want to put this on my resume actually, but i'm not sure what to write.

Could anyone share some parameters to determine one's skill level?

For instance:

Basic -> What functions/features you need to know to say you are basic user. for instance, hotkey creation.
intermediate -> same. for instance, http calls?
Advance -> same. message passing?
Expert -> same -> ????

Thanks in advance!

I kind of think your ability to answer questions on the forum is a good litmus test. After that, then your ability to create useful programs. You could describe the type of scripts you have created in AutoHotkey on your resume. For various people, they would have written scripts to solve problems at their present or previous jobs. However, in work or company situations, you might not be allowed to show those program. If the scripts created were for personal use and not for business or under contract, you might also offer to show some of them, if asked. Some people have blogs or websites, where they show off programs that they have made.

[nnnik]

Although originally a joke I'd like to quote this forum/discord member on the topic:

People expect you to excegerate a little in your resume - so you should do exactly that.
The borders and lines shown here work fairly well for rating skills in AHK only.

[Helgef]

i've been using ahk for 2 years now

Since likely no one reading your resume will know AHK better than you, you should proclaim your self an expert.

Cheers.

[AHKStudent]

Worked in HR for 3 years and hired a lot of developers (web developers). If you showed me a list of things you did and what role you played in the development of those projects, you got my attention and if it was good projects, even not all that advanced, you had a good chance of getting hired.

I can tell you that resumes with a list of languages get deleted or ignored fast.

Only a few people would include a list of projects, sometimes with a link to a github or website and always the features and what part they played in developing it.

There are companies that use AHK every day but they do not know what AHK is because its a compiled script or some script that starts on startup and they don't even know its there. When you describe what you have done it helps the hiring process a lot.

I would not consider someone an AHK expert unless they can write classes and understands DLL calls enough to be able to visit MSDN and figure out calls on their own to solve problems. The good news is that you can learn to do that like others have.

[nnnik]

You can be an AHK expert without understanding what a class is and even know what MSDN is about.

[kczx3]

i've been using ahk for 2 years now

Since likely no one reading your resume will know AHK better than you, you should proclaim your self an expert.

Cheers.

Agree with this. It doesn’t matter how good you are if the audience can’t comprehend what you’re trying to explain that you know. I have AutoHotkey on my resume. That’s it, just listed that I know it.

[letacio]

this is hard to judge since a lot of the more powerful functionality lies outside the scope of ahk in and of itself. eg, COM and DllCalls(basically the entire winapi), html guis, programming practices, etc

so purely in terms of ahk:

• basic: makes simple Send, Click, Image/PixelSearch hotkey/hotstring scripts with no consideration of common programming practices, lots of copypasting, little to no comprehension, programming by accident
• medium: text processing, guis, is aware of all functions/language features, applies some programming concepts
• advanced: knows all functions/language features and their interactions or is able to derive them, applies them appropriately, uses low level stuff properly where appropriate, scripts are portable and maintainable
• expert: modifies source to fix bugs, introduce new features, tailor ahk to their needs

thanks, it was a good measure to take!

Although originally a joke I'd like to quote this forum/discord member on the topic:

People expect you to excegerate a little in your resume - so you should do exactly that.
The borders and lines shown here work fairly well for rating skills in AHK only.

Funny but made me depressed

Hello there!

I was wondering, i've been using ahk for 2 years now, and besides doing very nice stuff, i find new nice features (like message passing/http calls) everyday. So i never know how much "good" or "experienced" in ahk I am.

I want to put this on my resume actually, but i'm not sure what to write.

Could anyone share some parameters to determine one's skill level?

For instance:

Basic -> What functions/features you need to know to say you are basic user. for instance, hotkey creation.
intermediate -> same. for instance, http calls?
Advance -> same. message passing?
Expert -> same -> ????

Thanks in advance!

I kind of think your ability to answer questions on the forum is a good litmus test. After that, then your ability to create useful programs. You could describe the type of scripts you have created in AutoHotkey on your resume. For various people, they would have written scripts to solve problems at their present or previous jobs. However, in work or company situations, you might not be allowed to show those program. If the scripts created were for personal use and not for business or under contract, you might also offer to show some of them, if asked. Some people have blogs or websites, where they show off programs that they have made.

loved the litmus test concept! that made me feel better. i can answer most of the questions i see lately.
the idea of making videos is on my mind already, but i wanted to know what to study to feel myself more confident.
as mentioned in other answers, dll calls and COM objects are a nice deal. im learning dll calls right now!

i've been using ahk for 2 years now

Since likely no one reading your resume will know AHK better than you, you should proclaim your self an expert.

Cheers.

That made me laugh hard

Worked in HR for 3 years and hired a lot of developers (web developers). If you showed me a list of things you did and what role you played in the development of those projects, you got my attention and if it was good projects, even not all that advanced, you had a good chance of getting hired.

I can tell you that resumes with a list of languages get deleted or ignored fast.

Only a few people would include a list of projects, sometimes with a link to a github or website and always the features and what part they played in developing it.

There are companies that use AHK every day but they do not know what AHK is because its a compiled script or some script that starts on startup and they don't even know its there. When you describe what you have done it helps the hiring process a lot.

I would not consider someone an AHK expert unless they can write classes and understands DLL calls enough to be able to visit MSDN and figure out calls on their own to solve problems. The good news is that you can learn to do that like others have.

Yep, that message made me happy, as i've just started on dll's and message passing. COM i used a little bit already.

Thanks everybody for the answers, helped me a lot!

[SOTE]

Probably some good examples of people that could easily say they are experts in AutoHotkey (outside of developers of course), and HR would almost immediately believe them, are AutoHotkey memebers like:

Alguimist
https://sourceforge.net/projects/autogui/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/winspyex/

mtodd
https://www.michaels-tech-notes.info/software-photo-gallery/
https://www.michaels-tech-notes.info/software-database/

jNizM
https://github.com/jNizM

Pulover
https://www.macrocreator.com/

They can easily link to programs they have built with AutoHotkey. And because their programs are on a blog, website, SourceForge, Github, etc... Note- Profiles up on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube videos, various freelancer websites, etc... would likely also be acceptable. It kind of highlights them individually, where they can put info about themselves or their background, and give a bit sample of their work. Of course some people will have been writing programs under contract for a business or their job, so can't show them off, but they can often use them as a reference. As in HR can contact their previous employer or co-workers about the scripts they built. This is where a LinkedIn or Facebook profile might work better, if a person doesn't want to do a blog, website, or webpage.

There are of course many, many other talented programmers that use AutoHotkey, that we both know and don't know about. But I'm just stating some ways that people can more easily see that a person is highly skilled and comfortable writing programs in AutoHotkey.