O’Reilly’s PHP DevCenter linked to a great blog entry on How (not) to write a Perl job ad. The advice goes for any programmer job ad, though. You just need to substitute “PHP” for “Perl”, “PEAR” for “CPAN”, and so forth.

If you’ve got places to go and people to see, and don’t want to take the time to read through this entry or the other two great entries this one links to, here’s a summary:

Be specific. Who, what, when, where. Don’t say you’re looking for “Perl experience” to work at a “top company” that runs a web site full of “content”. Say you’re an online classified ads service on the South side of Melbourne, Australia looking for a Perl developer who can write object-oriented Perl, is familiar with CPAN modules, and enjoys getting free sodas and playing foosball.

Remember, the best qualified developers (those who are smart and get things done) aren’t desperate for your job. You really need to wow them. You need to get their attention and make it clear to them why they want to come work for you. You want honesty and hard work from them, so spend some time writing an honest, enticing ad for them.