"use strict" is an aid but it's neither necessary nor sufficient to write good programs. I'd be hestitant to work for anyone who focusses on details, forgetting the overall picture.

I was once "fired" from a short online web programming job for not using strict.

The guy who'd hired me was himself a Perl programmer, subcontracting this job to me because he had more work than time. I took a day or two to code up a prototype solution for him, and (due to the thinness of his original requirements IMHO) fired it off to him with a "how's this, is it something like what you need?"

He responded with an expression of horror that my code was missing use strict and use warnings. I was clearly unsuitable to perform Perl programming, for him or anyone else, if I didn't understand this basic principle.

I guess I would advise fellow Monks to use strict until and unless you know the boss feels otherwise, or trusts you to make the call.

Or, like Abigail, be prepared to NOT work for them.