Well .. I'm not that sure about the career. But it did help me to stay sane. (Or maybe to keep my insanity at a tolerable level? It's not for me to tell.) It did help a lot in automating things in my previous job (network admin+user support), but all that was lost due to my inexperience. I let the management believe that "the guys can do it". Yes we managed, but I don't have to tell you that 15+ hours a day is a little too much. Not that the management would notice or the salary would be worth it.

What was actually more important at that time than fact that I could automate things and thus save time (that I wasted anyway) was that I could help people on the mailing lists and they (unlike the management and most users) did say the much needed thanks from time to time.

Currently I'm working as a developer, but Perl is treated here something like a black stoker on a 19th century steamer. Something below the surface that keeps the ship moving but noone wants to talk about. And if they do they say that it stinks, not that it stokes. Plus the policy is something like "OK, if you really must you can use it. If you must. But if it's at all possible use VB/VBScript." The only change lately is that instead of VB they start insisting on C#. And of course befuddled by the marketing hype they think I can+should rewrite everything in the "great" "new" language.

So I would say, Perl did help me to get bigger salary, but it's not viewed here as "the way to go". And I'm supposed to be learning&improving C#, not Perl. As Jason put it "I am on my own."

But Perl related jobs (that would not be mainly Unix admins with some Perl) are scarce here (Czech Rep.)

Jenda