We all know that Perl is great, but some recent discussions have got me thinking: is Perl a good career move?

I have friends who have about the same amount of experience as me, but program in Java, earn more money and, (most importantly) have more career options open. I have a good job, but when it comes time to move on, will there be a Perl position waiting for me? My friends know for sure there'll be Java positions.

Another problem is that Perl is kind of a dead end in terms of moving to other languages. One of my Java programming friends was initially a Smalltalk developer, but was easily able to move languages. I'm not sure an employer would be as convinced about a Perl developer doing the same thing (I'm not saying it's not possible, or even difficult, but it's what a potential employer thinks that matters). You can't move from Perl to .NET, VB, or really even C

If you knew a recent graduate, who knew a little Perl and a little Java, which career path would you suggest they take?

I know there are a lot of Perl jobs out there, and there probably will continue to be for some time, but why would anyone choose it as a career path, other than that's what you knew?