I think you're pretty much right. It completely depends on what the specifics of a company needs, what the level of experience is of the people already working there, and what their client base is (i.e. what is the set of problems they solve to generate revenue). You would probably best be served by just reading through job postings and figuring out what problems Perl developers are utilized to solve. Try to find a company that gives you a balance of growth/experience that you want, culture, and compensation that jives with what you're looking for.
For me, I need to be involved in solving coding problems that are interesting, and in that realm, not all places are equal. For example, I have interests in web development, automation, large data sets, and user experience. Because of that, I like places that have web applications that have a large and diverse user base with which I can interact to get feedback on what they want, so I can build it for them. It's a plus if the data set I work on is large/complex (because that's fun for me), and if there are opportunities to write automation scripts (e.g. batch processing for sending out email notifications, periodic DB cleanup and massaging tasks, automated reports, etc.).
What kind of code do you write in your spare time when you're not coding for class? Try to find a place that writes the same kind of code.