my way-to-perl

My way to becoming a Perl programmer

Sysadmin in a small company

+ Interesting at first (before everything was set up)

- Just boring after that

- No progress

- No perspectives

- Started to hate other people

+ Had a time to learn something new

I already knew some Perl and liked something about it...

● magic (JAPHs are usually unreadable puzzles, but they are working Perl programs!)

● eliteness (kind of)● power of expression

– do in 1 line what you would do in 5 lines in other languages

● ease of use (when you know it)

Searched for Perl on the Internet

● found videos of YAPC::Russia 2008● spent a lot of time watching them

– it was so exciting!

– I never realized people would do something similar!

– smart people!

● realized that the next YAPC::Russia will be in about week or two and registered– and it was free to visit!

YAPC::Russia 2009

● Came to it● Heard a lot of interesting talks● Met many wonderful and smart people

– still was too shy to talk with most of them :)● but found someone who hired anyway =)

● Played the “imagine the future” game● Was very excited● Wrote a small blogpost about it (never wrote blogposts

before)

Small freelance jobs

● Learned bits of DBI, CGI, Sympa, TT, LWP, CGI::Application, etc.

● Prepared for something bigger– read the books

– tried to do small testing tasks

● But still needed a kick in the ass to leave my job

Traces of financial crisis of 2008

● Many people in Russia were fired● 2 sysadmins is too many for the small company

● especially when everything works like a charm =)

● And the other sysadmin was the boss'es nephew =)

Choosing the job

● Delphi or C# or Java programmer?● Sysadmin in another company?

or probably...

● Perl developer?!?!?– it's so exciting!

● and well paid =)

Choosing the job

● Delphi or C# or Java programmer?● Sysadmin in another company?

or probably...

● Perl developer– give one, please!

– remotely

Working remotely

● Couldn't / didn't want to relocate– Even to Amsterdam (and booking.com was

probably also small at that time)

– or to Moscow

– or somewhere else (Odessa? :)● and no one invited me at that time =)

Promoting Perl is good!

● Organize more wonderful conferences and workshops!

● Sponsor newbies!● Create more Perl jobs!!!

– hire newbies (also remotely)

– teach them to program Perl

– guide and appreciate them

Thank you!

Ilya Chesnokov <chesnokov.ilya@gmail.com>

Kiev, YAPC::EU 2013