Experience programming in one or more of the following languages: C, C++, Java, Python, Go, Perl, or Ruby

I see that job is in Bangalore, India. Curiously, a similar careers.google.com job advert for a Software Engineer in Warsaw, Poland asks for:

Experience with one or more general purpose programming languages including but not limited to: Java, C/C++, C#, Objective C, Python, JavaScript, or Go" ... along with "ability to learn other coding languages as needed"

So it seems each region is free nowadays to choose their preferred programming languages ... a nice change from the early years when I heard anecdotally that the only languages permitted at Google for serious production code were C++, Java and Python.

Curiously, Guido van Rossum, a famous Google employee from those early years, did not know who introduced Python at Google in the first place! Hmmm, now that Guido has left Google for Microsoft, will we now see Python adoption rising inside Microsoft and declining at Google?

Oh well, I'm delighted that both Bangalore and Warsaw at least did not ask for my three most hated languages: Windows BAT, PHP and Cobol. :)

For some background on Programming Language Sociology and Evolution see: Organizational Culture (Part VI): Sociology

See also my mandatory list of Links Comparing Programming Languages

I think it should be clear to everyone that if you know Perl and you get a job at Google because you do, you will not be programming in Perl at Google. They just want you to be a programmer. You will use the language they tell you to use.

I can't imagine a firm that size having zero Perl programmers.

But the truth is that good programmers are so rare, that job descriptions tend to "fish" everywhere, in the hope to easily train the haul to swim in a new pond.

One of my last clients was even actively looking for PHP coders to be able to train them on Perl.

I dare saying a versatile Perl programmer can easily adapt, because of its TIMTOWTDI tendency to cover a maximum of paradigms, he has seen most concepts already.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the 𐍀𐌴𐍂𐌻 Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

I'm not so sure about that. Maybe not a lot of project work, but there's Perl in odd places on the Internet. They probably don't want to hire contractors just to figure out what's going on. Also, they may also be using Perl for portable scripts they need to distribute to a number of different environments. Really, none of those other languages are BETTER than Perl for that and Perl is highly likely to be already installed in a lot of Linux and Unix systems.

Python is heavily used in Azure. Microsoft's pretty much onboard

They headhunted me based on my open-source work - much of it on perl or in Perl. I worked 2008-2009 as an SRE in the Dublin office.

The need was for a solid understanding of algorithms, and the ability to pick up a new language quickly. They have quite a few Google-internal languages, and a fast-paced environment.

In principle, employees were charged only with picking the best tool for the job. In practice, there are obviously languages that are in or out of fashion at any given time.

I wrote a bit of Perl code there (as well as Python, C++, shell, and 3-4 Google languages), but Perl was clearly not a favoured language (and my own evangelization was clearly not about to change that). But I also spent some time reviewing a colleague's >10KLOC shell application, during which my most repeated (verbal) review comment was ".. and at what point did you realise that writing this in shell was a really stupid idea?"

I also spent some time reviewing a colleague's >10KLOC shell application, during which my most repeated (verbal) review comment was ".. and at what point did you realise that writing this in shell was a really stupid idea?"

I feel your pain. Sounds like he got you to review the code after it was "done". Is that right? If so, it looks like an example of the classic Beware of a guy in a room anti-pattern. He should have been discussing the general approach with the team long before going off to create his shell script monstrosity.

I see this was back in 2008-2009. I trust this sort of dysfunctional teamwork would not occur at Google today, given their seminal gTeams study of 2015/2016 (discussed at Working Solo and in a Team and Psychological Safety).

After being burned by a number of similar incidents, I had a rare success at work, managing to persuade all of R&D to stop writing Unix shell (and Windows BAT) monstrosities, based on the arguments put forward in Unix shell versus Perl.

I think he'd been looking for someone prepared to review it for quite a while. The team was split across Mountain View and Dublin (with Dublin the smaller and very much the junior part), and this was during my initial visit to Mountain View shortly after I joined. I suspect getting me to review it was intended as a kind of hazing of the newbie, but I didn't actually mind it at all since I'm a big fan of code review and considered it comfortably within my competency.

This being SRE most of them had a primary background in system administration with a sideline of programming rather than the other way round as in my case, so writing a big bunch of shell may not have seemed an entirely unnatural choice. Within the context of multi-KLOC shell applications, it was actually pretty well written - I learned quite a bit about shell programming in the process. But of course I can has perl, so I've since forgotten it all again. :)