the "no good Perl jobs"/"no good Perl programmers" myth

[Nicholas Clark]

On Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 02:03:51PM +0100, Peter Hickman wrote:
> Andy Wardley wrote:
> >So while it's easier to find a PHP/Java programmer or job, I think it's
> >easier to find a *decent* Perl programmer/job these days because the 
> >Perl wheat has been separated from the web/CGI/monkey-hack chaff.
> >
> 
> It's less easy than you think. Thats why we are turning into a Java shop :(

Curious. Your firm makes websites for clients?
I had a private reply from someone at a firm saying that it's hard to find
Perl people who are motivated to make websites for clients. Is this a
general case?

And is this also consistent with an original undertone of my first message -
that there are more programmers who like Perl who don't want to make
websites than not-doing-websites jobs exist, and more doing websites jobs
that wanted Perl, than people who can do Perl and want to make websites?

Hence why there can be empty jobs and dissatisfied people at the same time.

Also, if there aren't decent Perl programmers who want to make websites,
what stops said firms from recruiting smart programmers straight out of
university (who don't yet know what they want to do) and teaching them Perl?
I assume that with Java you can recruit your junior minions pre-trained.

Nicholas Clark