Whoa, there's restiction on the amount of time you can edit you post. So some information has been re-presented. Apologies for redudancies.

I started using Poser 3 in 1998 and I'm currently learning Maya. As mentioned Poser is good for what it does but has obvious shortcomings, as observed by the several complaints listed in the forum daily. I am constantly amazed by what Maya can do and I also enjoy the "instant gratification" that Poser offers. But both Poser and Maya are nothing more than tools, and I believe that an expert Poser user with time can be come a formidable Maya artist, if they are willing to invest the time.

Everyone talks about the big apps that studios use but why do they use them? I believe this is the key to understanding the "snobbery" you experienced during your interview.

The reason why studios use Maya is because no other package is as extensible as Maya (perhaps SoftImage is but I've never used it so I can't say). If Maya doesn't have a function that you need, you just create it.  True, Poser has Python scripting, but I don't believe it's nearly as integrated into Poser as MEL is into Maya - in fact every Maya function and command is a MEL action. Also Maya's script editor offers history, instant feedback and debugging capabilities. Maya: 1, Poser: 0.

Maya can be stripped down to its kernel and reconstructed from the ground up to be as specialized as you need it to be. Let me repeat that for clarity. Maya can be stripped down to its kernel and reconstructed from the ground up to be as specialized as you need it to be. My Maya and John Doe's Maya may have come from the same place (or source code) but are completely different, customized apps due to our workflow issues. Maya: 2, Poser: 0.

 And of course Maya, using Mental Ray (which some consider to be the world's most physically accurate render engine) or Renderman (production proven for scene weight and speed for several Hollywood films) can render millions of polygons or NURBS / SubDs respectively, which sadly, Poser / Firefly cannot touch. Two fully clothed and hair-ed V3s will crash Poser like a drunk driver. But how many Poser artist fully clothe their V3s?  Maya: 3, Poser: 0.

All of Maya's power comes with a price - learning Maya's eight modules (in the case of Maya Unlimited), which is daunting. I have found that once you "wrap your head around" the way Maya works (which takes very little time once you forget everything you ever learned), most of learning Maya involves exploring the thousands of options available for creating something as simple as a sphere for example. The funny thing is that I find myself using Maya keystrokes in both Poser and Vue 5 Infinite, so I guess I'm biased. Maya: 4 for flexibilty, Poser: 1 for ease.

So I'm really sorry that you've been offended by the "high-enders" but I think their snobbery is somewhat justified.