Perl has helped me in a somewhat un-conventional way: It has given me a lot of value in my field. I don't exactly get paid to code. I get paid to make people's headaches go away. So, if I can do that better, faster, and cheaper with Perl, so be it. Most of my clients don't know or care what I run.
In addition, the Perl mindset and community has made me a much stronger coder, irrespective of what language I'm using that particular day. (It makes me realize just exactly how much I loathe the idea of using COBOL. <g>)
Perl leverages my average skill to make me very valuable when compared to other coders using inferior toolsets. That's the one biggest advantage I'd say.
