I have been seeking a job that will let me use Perl for
two months now, and everywhere I go, they want someone who is already
a guru. Does anyone have any hints on how I can find an entry-level
Perl job. I have skill in HTML, Javascript, ASP, C/C++, etc....I just
don't have the experience in Perl. Any of your suggestions are appreciated.
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RE: Perl Jobs
by BBQ (Curate) on May 04, 2000 at 19:31 UTC | |
If you're good enough to fake it you're probably good enough to starting writing code of you're own! I'm saying this from the employer's point of view because this has happened to me in the past. I was hiring programmers, and I wanted someone that already had perl XPs (sort-a-speak :o)), and the guy I hired managed to pull it off by saying he had non-professional perl knowledge and he needed was some time to adjust to the job requirements. I have to admit it wasn't exaclty what I was expecting, but it was close enough! Just make sure that whereever you are, you have a way to log on to perlmonks.org... Good luck! #!/home/bbq/bin/perl # Trust no1! | [reply] |
RE: Perl Jobs
by perlmonkey (Hermit) on May 04, 2000 at 21:06 UTC | |
If you have no side projects that you can show an employeer ... start now. It would be great if you had cgi programs on a website and definately make the code available to the interviewers. Also I would not pay a huge amount of attention to what they want. Everybody want to hire a god programmer, but the fact is they will just as likely hire anybody with a little bit of programming experience. We have interviewed tons of people, but we cant get a single one. They all put perl on their resume, but if we ask them a question like "what is the difference between $var, @var, and %var" they cant answer that. totally lame. So start playing with the camal/lama books and learn as much as you can. Code what ever your heart desires, and soon enough the jobs will come. If you have already done that then you are way more marketable than you think. Good luck, and happy hunting! | [reply] |
by BBQ (Curate) on May 05, 2000 at 03:27 UTC | |
Boy, that IS lame... But I totally agree. Thank god perl has a very steep learning curve, which on your comment comes to proove that the guys you interviewed actually knew close to nothing. On buzzcutbuddha's case (and where the hell did you come up with THAT nickname?) he has a big advantage which is previous programming knowledge. If you can code, you can most definitely learn perl very fast. And in the end, aren't we all still learning? (well maybe not btrott, vroom and chromatic :o)) | [reply] |
by kudra (Vicar) on May 07, 2000 at 11:26 UTC | |
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RE: Perl Jobs (kudra: It's okay to be learning Perl)
by kudra (Vicar) on May 07, 2000 at 11:43 UTC | |
You should definately use the fact that you know other languages to your advantage. I imagine you remember how much faster it was to get a working knowledge of the second language than the first. Mention that you've done similar tasks with other languages (if you have), and remind people that knowing how to code can be a lot harder than gaining a working knowledge of any language. Supposing in the future they want some other language--the person who is capable of learning other languages is a useful person (I know, you wouldn't want to stick with a company that would forsake Perl, but you can also apply this concept to updates of Perl). | [reply] |
RE: Perl Jobs
by plaid (Chaplain) on May 04, 2000 at 23:51 UTC | |
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RE: Perl Jobs
by chromatic (Archbishop) on May 05, 2000 at 05:27 UTC | |
Part of the reason I (and I suspect btrott and turnstep are similar in this) spend so much time coming up with alternate solutions is because there are so many different ways to do things. It keeps me sharp and helps me find obscure language features and understand more about things I haven't learned yet. Do that for a couple of months, hack on a few projects of your own (or patch a few free projects), and then you'll know what to put on your resume. Tangential to the original question, but it might help. | [reply] |