Question

I have been a C++ / Linux Developer till now and I am adept in this stack. Of late I have been getting opportunities that require Perl, Unix (with knowledge of C++,shell scripting) expertise. Organizations are showing interest even though I don’t have much scripting experience to boast off. The role is more in a Support, maintenance project involving SQL as well. Off late I am in a fix whether to forgo these offers or not.

I don’t know the dynamics of an IT organization and thus on one hand I fear that my C++ experience will be nullified and on the positive side I am getting to work on a new technology stack which will only add to my skill set.

I am sure, most of you at some point of time have encountered such dilemmas and would have taken some decision.

• I want you to share your perspectives
  on such a scenario where a person is
  required to change his/her technology
  stack when changing his/her job.

• What are the merits and demerits in
  going with either of the choices?

• Also I know that C++ isn’t going
  anywhere in the near future. What
  about perl? I have no clue as to what
  the future holds for perl developer?
  Whether there are enough
  opportunities for a perl developer?

  I am asking this question here because most of my fellow programmers face this career choice dilemma.

EDIT:
Since the last time I asked this question, I made up my mind to switch.
I was just about to sign on the dotted line but some divine intervention made me seek some clarification about the working hours, and to my horror, the profile required me to work in
shifts which I am never comfortable with. I was all the more livid because they didn’t clarify this point earlier. It was a reputed organisation but still I gave them my piece of mind and said thank you very much.

Thanks.

Answer 1

• Regarding changing of stack, it definitely helps you long term in your career, both from extra experience available to offer to next employer to expanded job set you can qualify for to increased programming IQ due to knowing different points of view (e.g. Perl, for all its scripting origins, when used properly, has both OO and very nice functional paradigms available, but this point applies to any new technology).

  However, you must be willing to put extra effort in to actually learn new stack/environment/language, and to learn to do things new way (e.g. don’t write C++ code in Perl 🙂 – especially for that last benefit to kick in. Please note “environment” there – the jump involves for example learning new debuggers and debugging techniques (for me the hardest thing about C++ development after switching from Perl so far is probably doing effective gdb debugging after being used to flexibility/power of perl debugger).

  Personally I had to make this jump twice – from C developer to Perl and 10 years later Perl to C++. I learned a lot both times, and am not sorry I made the jump. The first jump was from IT role (Junior SA/Production with some C coding) to a full-on developer, the second was just a jump between different business teams.

• As for demerits, please be aware that you WILL lose your edge in whichever stack you’re not currently using for a while. Not completely forget, but nowhere near where you left off – and that does not even count the fact that the stack may have naturally evolved in the time elapsed. Also, as I said, you MUST expect that to be effective, you have to put in a lot of effort to become fluent in idiomatics, philosophy and ecosystem of the new stack. E.g. simply learning Perl is a small piece of the puzzle – you need to become familiar with a large chunk of CPAN, just as you had to know STL etc… Not really a demerit as far as I’m concerned, but a point that needs to be kept in mind.

• As for opportunities for Perl developer, this was extensively covered on SO before. While the absolute # of jobs is likely less than that of Java or C++ ones, a high quality developer will always be in demand, and there’s plenty of companies (including, or may be especially, in financial industry) heavily using serious Perl development (as opposed to simple administrative scripting). The language itself is developing and moving forward as well.