throwaway789a

That's true. In my case I was not fired on the spot from a legal point of view. I had just to give up the keys, and my access to the company network was revoked, but legally I was still an employee for a while.

And maybe you are right about me being a potential entrepreneur. It's something that's in the back of my mind, but so far I didn't find a business idea.

> So your saying that a manager fired you solely on feedback u gave to him?

Yes.

> I'm pretty sure that's illegal.

Why would that be illegal?

> Why is it so important to your boss that the project be done in Perl?

It was an existing project developed by the client, and they used Perl. So the technology was fixed.

> And why is it so important to him that you do the project in Perl?

That wasn't important, I was just the guy with some free capacity.

> As you said, you don't even know Perl. Why isn't the project going to someone who does know it?

There was none who knew it (at least as far as I know), the company was a Java shop.

Yes, that's true, though I think being a professional also includes the option of saying "no" (on how you say it, that's another question).

HR was never involved in this (except in doing the admin stuff after the termination).

And it wasn't about my true feelings or me being right. I enjoy analyzing and thinking about stuff, and so when you give me an assessment form with about 20 topics, you will get a (critical) analysis of them. With my thoughts on what's good and what could be improved. And many questions. For me it was like a code or design review.

I never worked in a remote project, but for me it is easier to communicate via email/chat than by talking to people because the asynchronous way gives me more time to think about what I want to say.

There was no public humiliation. The only person who saw the assessment form was my boss.

Funny you mention "Say yes". So far I often heard the advice to say "No" more often, especially during my apprenticeship.

> A point for concern is your response that you're a Java developer with no interest in a different language.

It's not that I'm not interested in a different language (besides Java I use other languages, too), it's just that I was not interested in Perl.

I agree with you about the value of learning new languages, but I think you are more successful in learning a new language when you learn it because you want to learn it, and not, because you must learn it. Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation.

> Have you contributed to or created any open-sourece projects?

Yes, I have contributed patches/bug reports to open-source projects, but I'm not involved as a regular developer in any project. And I created some open-source projects, but they are only small libraries. Plus I'm active on StackOverflow.

> Second, never say you were fired

In my CV I don't mention I got fired. However, from the certificates of employment (I'm not sure this is the correct translation for the German "Arbeitszeugnis") you can easily figure out that I was fired.

Thanks for the book recommendation. Just ordered it.

Thanks for your thoughtful answer. It contains a lot of things I have to think about. And no, it wasn't too tough, it is the kind of feedback I was looking for.

One clarification:

> A negative assessment of your boss? Whoa. That would piss me off, too. Why didn't you just talk to him?

Filling out the assessment form was a required preparation for the yearly staff appraisal. You fill it out, give it to your boss and then you discuss it with him at the meeting. Though the discussion never happened in my case.

> And if your boss hired to to work on a project, don't refuse to do it; otherwise what did he hire you for?

The project was in a programming language I didn't know (and it wasn't used at the company) with a tight schedule. And I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it in time in the quality I want to provide. Plus as a Java developer I wasn't that interested in that particular programming language (Perl).

How else would you handle such a situation?