my @desc = 
  ("submitted by", "status", "a  short concise description", 
   "Jobfail", "finance", "Stevens");

sub populate {
  my (@variables) = @_;

  return join(", ", 
              map { qq/"$_"/ } 
              map { $variables[$_]||'' 
                      ? ($variables[$_], $desc[$_]) 
                      : () } 
                  (0 .. $#desc));
}

populate(2, 7, 8, 536870915, 536870922, 536870926);
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update: got rid of unneeded variables with a map.