I work in the Telecommunications industry, writing systems in Perl to provision network elements with the data they need to talk to each other, and to find out what went wrong when they don't. While my work requires knowledge of SQL, SOAP & XML, HTML & CSS, various Unix shells and utilities, a smattering of Javascript, a few protocols and a host of proprietary tools, I still tend to characterize my job as 'mostly Perl'.

One of the things I really like about Perl is that it seems nearly any problem can be solved in a few hours. As a husband and a father of five children, I firmly draw the line at a 40-hour work week. I don't think I've had to work through a weekend since my days as an IMS DB/DC COBOL programmer, right out of college.

I have a BS in Computer Science and Psychology, with some additional graduate coursework (non-degree seeking) in Computer Science here and there over the years. I've recently begun pursuing a certificate in C++ through a local university.

Many of the positions I have held since college have been 'mostly Perl' jobs. While I think that much of the real work that I do is accomplished in Perl, I have found that many job postings list Perl as an 'additional useful skill' or pair it with some other key qualification. I guess this is reasonable, considering that any programmer worth their salt will tend to have a diverse skillset and can selectively apply the best tool to a particular problem.

Still, this 'proverb' often applies to me: To a guy with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.