Generaly, I can answer this simply: I'd certianly take up a position like this in my current job, if the job required it. I'm Director of IT and head gopher -- by defintion, if the job requires it, I do it.

I wouldn't be comfortable doing it, though, and I /am/ a web programmer, by initial learning of perl. Really, I'm a generalist -- I could probably pick up the basics of DBI/SQL fairly quickly, but I would probably do it poorly for quite a while.

Is it reasonable to expect to get a Perl programmer who can hold their own with the DB? Certianly, if you ask for it: "Perl programmer firmilar with DBI/MySQL wanted for (part|full) time employment in the (long|short) term. Around $N, depending on experince". Make sure you interview around their rel. experince in the various fields -- you're end up getting a number of people who are good on the DB end, but barely speak perl, and vice-versa. (BTW, if you want DBA-ish stuff -- designing a DB, admining it -- say so, if you mean "can query against an existing DB using SQL", say "SQL".)