The entry competence level for graphics programmers

Hello ladies and gents,

I graduated 5 years ago with the intention of becoming a game developer, my
career got sidetracked and although this sidetrack led to an ultimately
comfortable existence and a lot of life lessons learned, I'm now at the
point where my career as a Flash / Flex developer is stagnating. It may also
be coming to a forced end as more and more of my employer's clients move
away from Flash each month. I've been keeping up with the times, and doing a
lot of graphics programming on the side using nVidia's CG shader programming
language and OpenGL.

I'm looking for a little insight into what skill level you expect entry
level, and reasonably competent graphics programmers (i.e. qualifying as
something above 'junior' in their job title, even if that's just the
omission of the word) to be at, and the difference between the two. By skill
level, I mean knowledge base, for example implementing certain shader
routines (e.g. normal mapping) and grasp of mathematics. Before I enter the
job search proper, I want to make absolutely sure that my skills are in fact
up to par as I understand that graphics programming positions in particular
are highly competitive. For example, I know that one area I lack skill in is
using shader functions built for DirectX 10 and above - by virtue of me
still using an XP machine (GPU is DX10 capable though, reeeally need to
upgrade), and I suspect that not being knowledgeable about,
say, tessellation using the GPU would swiftly kill any application I would
make for a graphics programmer role that paid more than free lunches.

On the other hand, this may not be the case, which is why I'm sending this
out to you better informed guys for a little feedback.

- Tommy

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