I started using Perl in 2010. After years of a passionate use, I start to plan something else. Disclaimer: this is not because of "the language".
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I feel your pain. I've been tooling up and getting certified in Python for a year, and have had contracts that were tangentially python. Last job search I was about to take a python contract and then suddenly a Perl job jumped out at me at the best salary I've ever had. So don't lose hope! Perl is still out there and recruitment is still happening.
In my opinion, Perl has become a spanner. Everyone is expected to be able to bumble along in it while being expert in something else whether it's kubernetes, Docker, Ansible, AWS or something else that helps a company get their job done. I've done ruby in a Perl shop as a proof of concept.
Don't lose hope!
Pretty much exactly the same scenario that has been keeping me at a polite distance from the Perl family of languages lately.
The opportunities are few and far between. When they do show up you have to evaluate whether you want to be part of the Perl community as it is today. Ancient grudges have hardened into battle lines.
Then there's the tech itself. Cor is an admirable effort, and Object::Pad is an amazing test case. But even if somehow everybody got over themselves and brought it in today, would I see it in production before I retire? I'm getting old, so that's a serious question. Heck, it's still a guess whether I'll see
use strictin a 2021 production codebase. The only Raku code I've seen at work is my own utility scripts, and none of those survive when I move on ^_^Anyways, best of luck to you. If you do want the Perl jobs, you're gonna have to stretch out for international remote work. The good news is that as lesser companies drop Perl, those that remain look promising if you've got the patience.
Good luck. I know Perl jobs are pretty scarce, and I wish you well.
I just went through the same thing. I've been using Perl since 1998 and was working the same Perl-based project since 2004, more or less. I was jettisoned early this year and spent about 6 months looking for Perl and/or DB work, while [re]training in Python and adding to my DB skills. And then a Perl position came along that I started last week. This project is probably 10 years old and plans to migrate to Python and swap the underlying DB in the next year or two. So, while my Python skills aren't great now, I'll be able to grow into them as we transition.
It looks like the dream plan! Good luck and enjoy.
don't see why you need to explain switching to other languages
I'd make it mandatory for Perl developers to get a job doing something else from time to time, we'll have a lot less complaining about "features" :)
I'm not writing Perl right now and I miss CPAN like crazy, all the fancy new languages lack good libraries like you would not believe, but I think being multilingual is worth it
You know, blues singer, they were telling their problems to others in their songs. It was a way to share issues, and to realize that those issues were actually common and to live better with difficult situations.
I don't pretend my ridiculous blog has something in common with the deepness of the blues songs. But it is maybe one of the way to express things.
Well, a blog post is a way to express oneself, beyond the strict confines of pragmatic need and the validation of an argument.
I do believe that your point about lacking decent libraries (hating the JS universe there, it feels as the new form of a recurrent human nightmare) is quite sound, although CPAN nowadays feels more and more like an elephant graveyard; not to mention that the libraries for many implementations of protocols and the likes are often quite far from comprehensive and bulletproof.
This is one of those posts that make me wonder whether it was good that my interest for Perl never became tangled with my career to the point of defining it, being a sysadmin/devop/SRE/whatever. I'been loving the language for more than 15 years, although judging from the people at Perl conferences I am still on the "younger" side of the attendees.
Attending the conferences (well, one per year actually) has been the contents of my "holidays" for several years and a place where I learnt and met several good friends, although I've grown more and more disillusioned with the steering of the language development and especially with the interactions of preminent (whatever that means) figures in the community (not all of them, mind you).
I still remember a talk in the FOSDEM Perl devroom in 2016 describing the community as mature: however, age aside, I am not that convinced that several loud members of it fit with that concept. Any volunteer-based community, especially in tech, can be extremely frustrating to deal with and be a part of, and Larry's waning presence as a respected glue-like figure has been an additional hit.
Sorry too not to have seen Liz and Wendy around as much recently, just as much as I am pained for the rift and conflict between the Perl and Raku communities, which I personally don't see as useful to either community as more than a few seem to think.
If the part of the community I've seen causing needless flames and hurt (not referring to those expressing their dissatisfaction with the current situation) with their behaviour can be described as mature, then I guess it's showing the mental disfunctions that so go along with very advanced "maturity" in actual people. Not to mention that a language that has gone through so much in this century and enjoys a not-so-stellar reputation to begin with needs anything but non-constructive drama at this juncture.
I really really wish that the language could be revitalized with more additional technical value, much like the Corinna project is striving to do (loving it and its stated principles, btw), but I've wondered countless time myself if my love for Perl would be better directed elsewhere, where it doesn't feel like watching a ship slowly sink while those aboard bicker endlessly. Climate change and watching the news grant me enough depressing thoughts as it is. It's more of an impression, a feeling, than an accurate depiction of reality, since the efforts of Curtis and Paul, among others, are concrete steps towards building something, however it does exist.
When it comes to your average tech person who loves Perl, because it just fits with their own mind well (much like myself), I remain doubtful of a growing career path there, except as a herder of legacy software much like one would find in the page of Cosmonaut Keep by Kevin MacLeod. Which, as unexciting as it may be, could also be a good way to make decent money. And my hopes for a Raku-rich future are also not that realistic at this point: frankly I don't see it pick up beyond the confines of hobby or volunteer OS projects, or of companies built by language enthusiasts.
As for your country, believe me when I tell you that here in Italy where I live there are likely to be even less opportunities than in France. Sadly, the Italian mongers groups (much like most of their counterparts elsewhere) are by now just fictional entities embellishing the pages of pm.org .
Be strong and prosper. And most importantly, keep learning :D .