"Mention GIMP or Blender at one of these job interviews and they're likely to just laugh you out the door."

Again, you need to remember this is 2014, the days of Autodesk fanboys doing their best to maike their bad decision look wise, are long gone - they can't pull it off anymore because people would simply laugh back at them.  No one laughs at Blender these days (unless they're a retard perhaps).  There has been a clear change on that front, Blender is now gathering the respect it deserves at an alarming rate.  The only people who laugh at Blender these days are those with a nervous laugh, and those "nervous laughs" usually eminate from supporters of software that cannot compete with Blender.  These days, Blender is the almighty workhorse that people admire and look up to, and I'm guessing is causing quite a few nightmares for the directors of the lesser, overpriced products.

Laugh at Blender these days?
Goog god man, you sound like you've not seen a Blender vid on YouTube for about five years or something ;-)

Heh ... hehe ... hehehehehe :-D