in reply to Market Stupid to Understand Perl

A career in programming is not soley about technical acumen, although being good at coding is helpful.

Communication is almost a key in landing a good job. Being able to express what you mean in clear language that non-technical people can understand is vital!

Understanding and solving people's problems is also very important. Often a customer will ask you to do something, but they aren't telling you what they mean, only what they think you need to know. You need to be able to ask a lot of questions, even questions you might take for granted. If you can give a customer what he really wants then you're on your way to making it!

Lastly, I can say I am a Perl Developer, and have been contracting in this mode for the last year-and-a-half. Previous to that I was in a non-software-development role but had been creating systems in Perl for others as a natural part of improving processes in another company.

Perl roles are thin on the ground, this much is true. There isn't the prolific listing Perl roles as there is of C++ or dot-Net or Java. You need to be flexible about where you live.

Some companies have moved towards Perl-based development, and these companies cannot get enough good Perl programmers. Often I have been asked in a role if I know anyone else that is good - and I have to say no as I know few good Perl programmers personally.

Companies that look for Perl programmers rarely look for code-monkeys, like other language based roles may require. A company that moves towards a Perl environment often is looking for a pragmatic developer that is as valuable in design and creativity as they are technically.

Which brings me back to the start of this article. You must develop your communication and creative skills if you want to succeed in Perl development roles, by-and-large. Good luck!

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Re^2: Market Stupid to Understand Perl
by imp (Priest) on Aug 25, 2006 at 13:13 UTC
    Some companies have moved towards Perl-based development, and these companies cannot get enough good Perl programmers. Often I have been asked in a role if I know anyone else that is good - and I have to say no as I know few good Perl programmers personally.
    My current employer is having this problem actually. They are looking to hire two perl developers, but the -two- candidates thus far have had minimal perl experience. And my last employer complained that while it is easy to find perl scripters it is difficult to find perl software engineers.

    My advice to the OP is to work on placing yourself firmly in the perl software engineer role, which shouldn't be difficult given your background in C++. You may have trouble getting started if you don't have much professional perl experience.. but that could be helped by side projects. Here are a few things you could do to make yourself more attractive:

    1. Contribute useful modules to CPAN (but check for existing functionality first)
    2. Submit patches to CPAN modules
    3. Create test cases for CPAN modules that you frequently use, when you find an edge case that isn't tested
    4. Participate on perlmonks. I have learned more from answering questions and being corrected than I have from most books
    It would also be helpful to read the following if you are serious about pursuing perl in your career: But perhaps most importantly you should consider what area of perl you want to work with, and build up the related skill sets. For example if you want to work on web applications you should spend a lot of time learning different databases and templating systems.
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