I have been following jobs.perl.org> closely for some time now. I have applied for MANY telecommuting jobs - I have only gotten feedback in a few cases - and I never succeeded on getting a contract.
I have also put my CV in a lot of job databases in Denmark - but not many Perl jobs appear and not many freelance jobs in general.
Finally I have applied for getting accepted in several consulting company databases, this have succeeded to some extent - I have gotten some interviews, but no contracts yet.
Until now networking seem to be the way to go, almost all of my contracts have been through my network.
Maybe I need to find a new strategy or just focus on and extend my network? LinuxForum is coming up and I will be there with a bunch of business cards :)
JOBS!?!?!
scrottie on 2005-02-05T00:41:11
Hey jonasbn. I feel your pain.
There aren't Perl jobs out there unless you rub elbows with the right people (not naming names as not to wrongfully imply it's their faults).
For us average joes, there just aren't Perl jobs.
This sounds like blasphemy and I've been blasted for it in the past but I'm really not just being some one else's tool and trolling, nor did I come to this conclusion ignorantly or lightly.
- Java is the most popular language by far in the skills area of job posts. Formerly Java was used for client-side work, and then full on desktop apps, but now most of it is used for web programming. This is eroding scripting language's traditional (at least traditional for the last ten years) niche.
- Within the realm of scripting languages, PHP has passed Perl long ago and Python is nipping at Perl's heels. Both have marginalized Perl development.
- The hot areas - consumer electronics (embedded applications, such as cell phones and video game systems) and desktop applications don't consider Perl because other things are used more traditionally and for whatever other reasons. Web development itself is being marginalized.
- Random data processing tasks are being better and more commonly served with other tools such as SAS, Matlab, Microsoft Access, Filemaker, and so on. There exists a shift away from writing quick disposable programs to do little tasks and buying off the shelf software.
But that's the conclusion, not how I came to the conclusion.
I came to the conclusion from having my resume on the first page of Google for about the last 3 years and not getting one job I was actually paid for from it (this ranking was purely an accident, I assure you)- and from some other feats just as impressive sounding I don't want to talk about right now. And from a lot of contacts that said they had work for me and then found that it had dried up soon after... most of the work on jobs.perl.org are things you're hopelessly uncompetitive for, such as working at
Amazon or Ticket Master, or else you're the personal tool of a really big dink who wants the impossible and is going to stiff you your pay ayway.
-scott
Re:JOBS!?!?!
jonasbn on 2005-02-10T20:10:33
I would prefer doing Perl, but most of my tasks/projects are in PHP and I have the opportunity to do a lot of PHP, so I have to - it gets food on the table.
But I know what I would prefer :)
