Perl can get you fired, if you suck at (your job/perl)

This is kinda like a very late, very short response to davorg's talks at YAPC::Eu.
Upon arriving home and telling about all kinds of nice talks I went to, my dad started asking me about Perl. He does auditing mostly (and has yet to gain experience on IT Auditing).

He asked about how Perl can be used in companies and what advantages people/companies could have by knowing/using Perl, which people should know it and why, if standardized tasks could be automated if analyzed properly (I pointed him to OeufMayo's talk as an example of automated tasks).

Reconsider the following things (pretend being a Perl newbie in an IT company): <DIR>

Should Perl be in your job description? Could it automate many of your tasks?
Can Perl (if abused properly) cause harm to collegues? (if so, please let me know all sadistic ways)
Is learning Perl getting you more money / getting other people fired?
Is your company prepared to sponsor your TPC or YAPC trips?
Does your company provide you with LOADS of ORA books?
Do you get any kind of hardware you can use to stick all those nifty Perl stickers on?

</DIR>
It's in your best interest to gain as much Perl knowledge as you can, coz if you don't you could be replaced by very small perl script.

If this makes any sense, please let me know... being in YAPC rehab isn't easy.

Greetz
Beatnik
... Quidquid perl dictum sit, altum viditur.

Comment on Perl can get you fired, if you suck at (your job/perl)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl can get you fired, if you suck at (your job/perl) by lemming (Priest) on Aug 05, 2001 at 11:23 UTC
One job I had for over four years was writing Perl to do my job for me. When I had started, I had a working knowledge, but not much more. The first system I wound up writing replaced three people that had left the company a couple months before. However, that company never sponspered any TPC or YAPC trips. I did get quite a few books out of it. Perl made my job there. If not, I would of worked there for only a couple months and been off somewhere else. Hmmmm, damn you Perl! Actually, the value is to learn the best and quickest way to do your job. It just happens that Perl can be very useful to do that.	[reply]
Re: Re: Perl can get you fired, if you suck at (your job/perl) by Beatnik (Parson) on Aug 05, 2001 at 12:34 UTC
I don't remember who told me this at YAPC::Eu (please step forward) but he stated that he did 90% of the work in the first X months of the Y years he worked there (using Perl ofcourse)... Greetz Beatnik ... Quidquid perl dictum sit, altum viditur.	[reply]
coding yourself out of a job by Anonymous Monk on Aug 05, 2001 at 18:30 UTC
i wasn't the one who told you that, but it was true of my last job. i worked there for about two years. the last year i spent doing mostly non-work-related development because i had automated all of my job functions and had nothing left to do (well, practically nothing). guilt eventually got me to find a new job where I could feel like i deserved the paycheck i got	[reply]
Re: coding yourself out of a job by blakem (Monsignor) on Aug 06, 2001 at 00:13 UTC
Re: Perl can get you fired, if you suck at (your job/perl) by OeufMayo (Curate) on Aug 06, 2001 at 13:08 UTC
For those who had the luck to miss my Lightning Talk, you can find it online. <kbd>-- my $OeufMayo = new PerlMonger::Paris({http => 'paris.mongueurs.net'});</kbd>	[reply]
Re: Perl can get you fired, if you suck at (your job/perl) by davorg (Chancellor) on Aug 06, 2001 at 12:59 UTC
For those that weren't at either TPC or YAPC::Europe, my talks are online. Perl for the People Why Perl Advocacy is a Bad Idea Both were written with tongue firmly in cheek :) -- <http://www.dave.org.uk> Perl Training in the UK <http://www.iterative-software.com>	[reply]


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