he was unsuccessful.

So now as he was unseccessfull, I'd like to get the job ;-)

Here is my solution, lacking any kind of error checking of course...

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

# read headline
$_= <DATA>;
chomp;

# split into words
my @headline= split /:/;

# assign each word a column number
my %headline;
@headline{@headline}= (0..$#headline);

# get the required columns
my @columns= @headline{@ARGV};

# print the column headers
print join(':',@ARGV),"\n";

# read each line
while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    # and print what's requested
    print join(':',(split /:/)[@columns]),"\n";
}

__DATA__
AGE:EYES:HAIR
32:BLUE:BLONDE
54:BROWN:BROWN
[download]

---

s$$([},&%#}/&/]+}%&{})*;#$&&s&&$^X.($'^"%]=\&(|?*{%
+.+=%;.#_}\&"^"-+%*).}%:##%}={~=~:.")&e&&s""`$''`"e