I'm with pg. When you get a chance to get paid to learn something new, you should never refuse (unless it's torture or chemical weapons manufacture or something). Learn some Java while you get your resume/CV out there. You might find you really like Java. Having more skills will mean you can take a wider range of jobs either way. The last physical office I contracted in was only consciously hiring for Java hackers but they were waist-deep in Perl that needed daily work so anyone that had Perl chops could do that as much as they liked. I think this exactly Java:Perl perception:usage happens to some degree in many, many offices.