First, my sympathy (I'm in a similar situation). Second, I concur with most of the comments already made. That is, a real programmer can program in anything.

The problem may arise with the focus of your current skill-set, or your age / background. I've found that I optimized my career for my former employer. That resulted in a great pay-check and a lot of respect, but after 15 years and a merger, it left me highly unsuited for anything else. (By this I mean that a lot of ads require a certain number of years of experience in X, or so many years using package Y. Many firms find it easier (and cheaper) to hire someone with less background than you because they're cheaper, or have exposure to more current technologies.

My suggestions?

• Focus on areas of Perl that you haven't used much before. I'm trying to write Tk and X wrappers for some toy programs of mine. I'm trying to learn mod_perl, because I'm not much of a Web person.
• Consider teaching. I'm on the path to getting certified to teach Math, and am investigating what paths are available to teach programming (either at the High School or Community College levels)

Best of luck. If you're young, you'll come out on top. If you're an inflexible dinosaur like me, you'll find alternatives.

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