use strict;
use CGI;

##</code><code>##

my $query = new CGI;
my %FORM = $query->Vars;

my @required_fields = qw{candidate position education status hired};
my @errors;
foreach (@required_fields) {
    if (!defined($FORM{$_})) {
         push(@errors,$_);
    }
}

if (@errors) {
    foreach (@errors) {
        print "$_ is a required field\n";
    }
}
else {
    # everything is good, do the work
}