Re: Have you netted a Perl Monk or Perl Pretender in 5 minutes or less?

[graff]

If I had to do this sort of interview over the phone, I'd probably cover things like:

• Do you remember which version of perl was the first one you ever used? What version are you using now? (This could cover OS experience, which may be relevant.)
• Have you used non-core Perl modules from CPAN? (Briefly discuss a couple favorites, if any, and if there's time.)
• Have you developed modules for your own use? (Might be hard to discuss these in detail.)
• Do you use other languages besides Perl? (If so, discuss thoughts, preferences, annoyances, etc, about the respective languages, to the extent there's time.)
• Do you use the perl debugger? What do you think of it?
• How often do you use perldoc?

These should give you some sense of the person's familiarity and comfort level with Perl. If they never used "perl -d", that's not a killer, but knowing how to use the debugger means a good deal. If they don't know what perldoc is, they don't know enough.

Apart from that, I'd probably stick to things that are more likely to be specific to the position being filled -- e.g. database experience, web experience, etc, if these are relevant.