I am in a similar position and would like to restate the question.
If someone applied for a job, saying he was a new programmer, what would you look for to see if he was worth considering for a position?
If someone applied for a job, saying he was a new programmer, what would you look for to see if he was worth considering for a position?
In my experience (both hiring and being hired) no company is going to hire you for a programming position unless you can already code reasonably well. That doesn't begin to cover the full picture (ancillary tools like testing, version control, etc... as well as teamwork and time management skills, more...) but it's enough to get a foot in the door at some places.