Top 12 Perl Developer Skills to Put on Your Resume
In today's competitive job market, showcasing a robust set of skills on your resume is crucial for Perl developers aiming to stand out. This article walks through the top 12 skills that can sharpen your resume, helping you grab the attention of hiring teams in Perl-focused roles.
Perl Developer Skills
- Perl 5
- Moose
- Catalyst
- DBIx::Class
- Mojolicious
- Plack
- CPAN
- Regular Expressions
- Perl Debugger
- mod_perl
- Template Toolkit
- Dancer2
1. Perl 5
Perl 5 is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted programming language known for powerful text processing, rich regular expressions, and a vast module ecosystem on CPAN. It shows up everywhere: web apps, ops tooling, data wrangling, bioinformatics, you name it.
Why It's Important
It’s a versatile workhorse. Text-heavy workflows, glue code between systems, rapid scripting, robust libraries—Perl 5 lets you move quickly without losing control.
How to Improve Perl 5 Skills
Go deep on language features: references, packages, OO, context, and the regex engine. Perldoc is your daily companion.
Stand on CPAN’s shoulders: learn how to search, vet, and integrate modules; write small wrappers to standardize usage across projects.
Adopt sane style: follow Perl Best Practices where they help; use Perlstyle as a compass, not a cage.
Test like you mean it: Favor Test::More and friends; build fast, isolated tests that run constantly.
Version control discipline: Git branching conventions, meaningful commit messages, code reviews—make them habits.
Keep learning: read Perl blogs and newsletters, attend workshops, and skim release notes for new features.
Give back: contribute modules or patches to CPAN; even small fixes sharpen your skills and profile.
How to Display Perl 5 Skills on Your Resume
2. Moose
Moose is a modern object system for Perl that makes classes, attributes, roles, and type constraints straightforward, expressive, and less error-prone.
Why It's Important
It dramatically reduces OO boilerplate, encourages clear design, and scales well in complex codebases—meaning you deliver cleaner code faster.
How to Improve Moose Skills
Master the core pieces: attributes, roles, type constraints, builders, lazy defaults, method modifiers.
Explore advanced internals: metaclasses and custom types to solve gnarly modeling problems.
Practice via refactors: migrate legacy classes to Moose incrementally; document trade-offs.
Read code in the wild: examine Moose-based distributions on CPAN; trace patterns that scale well.
Know when to pick Moo: for smaller or startup-fast apps, Moo offers a lighter footprint with a compatible model.
How to Display Moose Skills on Your Resume
3. Catalyst
Catalyst is a mature, flexible Perl web framework that embraces MVC, integrates tightly with CPAN, and scales from small sites to sprawling applications.
Why It's Important
It provides structure without boxing you in—robust routing, middleware, and a plugin ecosystem that speeds development and keeps code maintainable.
How to Improve Catalyst Skills
Know PSGI/Plack: Catalyst rides on PSGI; understanding the interface unlocks deployment and middleware superpowers.
Use DBIx::Class well: pair Catalyst with DBIx::Class for clean persistence layers.
Lean on best practices: consistent controllers, clear view layering, reusable middleware—keep churn low.
Study real apps: read public Catalyst codebases; build a demo with auth, sessions, and background jobs.
Contribute: file issues, fix docs, or ship plugins; you’ll learn patterns faster by engaging.
How to Display Catalyst Skills on Your Resume
4. DBIx::Class
DBIx::Class is a powerful ORM for Perl that models your database with Perl classes, handling relationships, queries, and schema evolution with less SQL noise.
Why It's Important
It streamlines data access, centralizes query logic, and encourages reusable, testable patterns across your application.
How to Improve DBIx::Class Skills
Nail the relationships: belongs_to, has_many, many_to_many—design them thoughtfully to avoid N+1 traps.
Leverage ResultSet: encapsulate common queries in custom ResultSet classes for clarity and reuse.
Use components wisely: TimeStamp, EncodedColumn, InflateColumn—reduce boilerplate and add guardrails.
Tune queries: join and prefetch properly; inspect generated SQL; watch the logs; keep indexes tight.
Generate schemas: DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader speeds onboarding; track migrations explicitly.
Debug effectively: flip DBIC_TRACE when needed; capture slow queries; profile hotspots.
How to Display DBIx::Class Skills on Your Resume
5. Mojolicious
Mojolicious is a modern Perl web framework built for speed and fun—great for APIs, real-time features, and clean, minimal boilerplate.
Why It's Important
It brings non-blocking I/O, WebSockets, a pragmatic router, and a batteries-included toolset that makes small services and full applications equally approachable.
How to Improve Mojolicious Skills
Master the basics: routes, controllers, helpers, stash, renderer, and the built-in test tools.
Think async: embrace promises and event loops; design endpoints that don’t block.
Use CPAN wisely: add authentication, rate limiting, and database layers as clean, composable modules.
Template effectively: learn rendering tricks, partials, and layout structure for maintainable views.
Join the community: ask questions on chat or mailing lists; follow release notes; contribute small patches.
How to Display Mojolicious Skills on Your Resume
6. Plack
Plack is the PSGI toolkit: a standard bridge between Perl web apps and servers, plus a rich ecosystem of middleware.
Why It's Important
It decouples your app from the web server, simplifies deployment, and lets you compose behavior (logging, sessions, compression) with small, reusable layers.
How to Improve Plack Skills
Understand PSGI deeply: app, env, response triplets; streaming responses; error handling.
Explore middleware: authentication, CSRF protection, static assets, caching; write a small custom middleware.
Experiment with servers: Starman, Twiggy, and friends—benchmark and pick the right fit.
Build tiny apps: prototype microservices to learn handlers, adapters, and deployment topologies.
Stay current: watch Plack and server release notes; follow community newsletters.
How to Display Plack Skills on Your Resume
7. CPAN
CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, is the beating heart of the Perl ecosystem: modules, scripts, distributions, documentation, and an active community keeping the lights bright.
Why It's Important
It shortens development time, raises code quality, and standardizes solutions—so you build on proven work instead of reinventing wheels.
How to Improve CPAN Skills
Follow module conventions: sensible naming, semantic versioning, tidy packaging, clear examples.
Create or adopt modules: fill gaps, modernize stale code, or adopt ADOPTME/HANDOFF distributions that need love.
Write excellent POD: usage, options, edge cases, and real examples—documentation that answers questions fast.
Automate tests and CI: Test::More suites, cross-version and cross-platform runs; pay attention to CPAN Testers feedback.
Modern tooling: consider Minilla or Dist::Zilla to streamline release workflows and metadata.
Engage: open issues politely, review PRs, and discuss design choices on mailing lists or chat.
How to Display CPAN Skills on Your Resume
8. Regular Expressions
Regular expressions are Perl’s not-so-secret sauce for pattern matching and text processing—concise, expressive, and fast when written with care.
Why It's Important
They let you search, extract, validate, and transform text with a few characters instead of sprawling code.
How to Improve Regular Expressions Skills
Build a solid core: anchors, character classes, quantifiers, grouping, alternation—practice until they’re second nature.
Use Perl’s extensions: non-capturing groups, lookaround, named captures, and possessive quantifiers when performance matters.
Mind performance: curb catastrophic backtracking; prefer specific patterns; benchmark variants.
Debug with tooling: try Regexp::Debugger or enable re debugging; read the engine’s trace to see reality, not guesses.
Reach for helpers: Regexp::Common for common patterns; encapsulate tricky regexes in well-named subs.
Practice in Perl: test patterns in short scripts; be cautious with online testers using PCRE—they’re similar but not identical to Perl’s engine.
How to Display Regular Expressions Skills on Your Resume
9. Perl Debugger
The Perl Debugger lets you step through code, inspect state, set breakpoints, and understand what your program is actually doing.
Why It's Important
It shortens bug hunts, boosts confidence in fixes, and helps you learn unfamiliar code faster.
How to Improve Perl Debugger Skills
Learn core commands: next, step, continue, break/watch, eval, print—muscle memory pays off.
Run with perl -d: start scripts under the debugger; pass args as usual; explore early and often.
Tune .perldb: customize prompts, shortcuts, and display formats to fit your flow.
Use watches and actions: let the debugger do the watching while you think.
Bring helpers: Devel::NYTProf for profiling, Devel::REPL for a scratchpad, Devel::hdb for browser-based or remote sessions.
Post-mortem: inspect after crashes; capture state to make intermittent bugs reproducible.
How to Display Perl Debugger Skills on Your Resume
10. mod_perl
mod_perl embeds a Perl interpreter in Apache, allowing persistent Perl code and direct access to server internals for serious performance and control.
Why It's Important
When low-latency, long-lived processes, and deep Apache integration matter, mod_perl delivers—far beyond traditional CGI.
How to Improve mod_perl Skills
Configure thoughtfully: understand the Apache lifecycle and where handlers run; pick the right process model.
Reuse connections: persistent database connections (for example via Apache::DBI) to drop connection overhead.
Keep memory in check: monitor growth; use Apache::SizeLimit/Apache2::SizeLimit to retire bloated workers.
Cache aggressively: memoize expensive calls; use shared caches where appropriate; invalidate carefully.
Profile and benchmark: Devel::NYTProf and realistic load tests reveal the real bottlenecks.
Choose wisely: mod_perl is powerful, but many modern deployments prefer PSGI/Plack behind a reverse proxy; pick the right tool for the architecture.
How to Display mod_perl Skills on Your Resume
11. Template Toolkit
Template Toolkit (TT2) is a fast, flexible templating engine that separates presentation from logic while still giving you pragmatic power where it helps.
Why It's Important
Clear templates make teams faster—front-end changes don’t tangle with business logic, and rendering stays predictable.
How to Improve Template Toolkit Skills
Learn the syntax well: directives, includes, blocks, macros, and data scoping.
Use filters and plugins: format numbers/dates, sanitize output, and extend behavior cleanly.
Design for maintainability: shared layouts, componentized partials, and naming that tells the story.
Tune performance: enable caching, precompile templates, and consider Template::Stash::XS.
Read good examples: scan public projects using TT2; borrow structures that age well.
How to Display Template Toolkit Skills on Your Resume
12. Dancer2
Dancer2 is a lightweight Perl web framework built for rapid development with minimal boilerplate and a clean DSL for routing.
Why It's Important
It strikes a sweet balance: quick to start, easy to reason about, and capable enough for production services using PSGI/Plack.
How to Improve Dancer2 Skills
Understand the core: routes, hooks, config, environments, and the request/response cycle.
Use plugins smartly: authentication, sessions, templating, and DB integrations that keep apps small but capable.
Test thoroughly: exercise routes with Plack::Test; write table-driven tests for edge cases.
Structure projects: organize views, routes, and lib modules for growth; avoid monolithic files.
Learn deployment paths: PSGI servers, reverse proxies, containers—try multiple setups and compare.
Learn from the community: the Dancer Advent Calendar and chat channels are treasure troves of patterns.
How to Display Dancer2 Skills on Your Resume
