DBA Tasks ( SQL SERVER 2008 ) - Reccomendation - Maintenance plan

I'm a JR DBA on a big company. I was hired 6 months ago, and i'm learning things really fast ( i'm the only DBA here ).

The old DBA left servers and SQL instances for me, to take care of it.

It's a really awesome structure ( cluster and etc ).

But, he was using scripts and a lot of programming to make backups, cleanup tasks, and all other DBA tasks. Everything is good. I am fixing some things here and there but everything is really good.

I'm learning SQL all by myself, and I was reading about MAINTENANCE PLAN.

It's a good pick to use it? If I was hired on a new company, it's a good pick to use maintenance plan ( for me, looks like too "simple", don't want to look a bad DBA).

Thanks.

( For complement, he uses a script to put database names on a table, and then he uses scripts to seek that table and use it on jobs. I can do this with a simple maintenance plan. But he was a Senior DBA. he told me that he likes it, and it's not a problem to use maintenance plan. I just want some opinions. )