Re: Finding the path

[sundialsvc4]

My answer would be:   it's not about the Perl.

Look for a broader range of “things to do with a computer,” no matter what kind of thing it is and no matter what tool(s) you use to do it.

In the big-picture of software development, “writing the code” is really the very last thing that happens, and in many ways it is the least-important. Plenty of basically-talented programmers fall into the very same hole of being stuck with cleverly-written but non-managed projects that have become an expensive albatross around the neck-bone of anyone who touches it. (I can tell you from very-recent experience that there's nothing worse than trying to deal with a mass of 11-year old code that was all thrown-together at 2:00 in the morning. Especially when those same people who first wrote it are going to be slugging away at 2:00 in the morning tonight to meet yet-another thrice-missed deadline. Some folks never learn...)

In the big picture, you not only have to “write code,” but you also have to write maintainable code, and to maintain existing code, and to meet-or-beat every deadline and every promise that you ever make. While finishing your workday by six o'clock. (P.M., that is.) This is about learning how to use Perl well.

In time you may decide that your interest in code-pushing is waning and that your own view is naturally expanding to a “big picture view.” Go with it. Project management is a big-money skill. Seriously, it helps to work your way into a profession that you can easily discuss at dinner parties, with people who don't wear pocket-protectors to dinner parties...   :-)