I have received a few private messages regarding my statement regarding the employment situation of Perl 5 (which I've responded to privately). It warrants a statement however.

Based on *my* experience in my country of residence (Canada), it has been difficult acquiring a Perl coding position. I know for fact that in the US (particularly the San Francisco Bay and surrounding "silicon valley") it should be trivial to attract attention to yourself, so long as you have some form of experience.

In other countries, I am not acutely aware of the market. I see on the Perl jobs website that there is a market in the U.K. and surrounding areas as well.

I'll never say perl5 isn't worth learning. To students or other interested parties learning Perl specifically for a job, I'd say do some market research due-diligence. That said, perl5 is so closely related to C (which students should be/or will be made familiar with), it's a fantastic gateway to any other language on the market. To me, Python was a finger-snap for me to learn, after understanding the basics of how Perl does Object Orientation (the original way; many employers are looking for Moose-y people, but the hard way is the best way before moving up to 'helpers' (imho).

No matter how 'old' Perl seems, there will always be those who chastise it. Same goes for all other things, even if they aren't related to programming at all.

In the end, I personally feel that even if one can't get a perl5 job specifically, the experience gained from understanding it will help with the understanding of many other languages, and will look good on the resume.

In reply to Re^4: Think Perl 6 (new book) by stevieb
in thread Think Perl 6 (new book) by pvaldes

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