Does learning many languages help??

I wanted to have some opinions..
especially from people who have recruited others.
Do u think knowing different programming languages help in terms of securing a job?? ( i mean any practical gains??)
Does it impress the guy sitting on the interview panel if someone can compare languages on features etc.
I love it personally :-) though.
thanks,
karthik

In my mind: sort of.
I'm a big fan of history. I often like to understand the history significance of things. For example, I've got a much better understanding of physics research in the 19th century because I in studying the history of science I can trace the research roots back to the greeks. Granted, this particular example is kind of useless, but it shows just how far back roots can be. A more relevant example might be to look at Unix. When you really get into the guts of it, you see things that are kind of strange. but if you understand computer architecture from the 1950's and 1960's it makes more sense.
I'm also a big fan of interdispline pattern matching, that is, learning something in one field, and seeing it come up in another. For example, I once saw a model in political science, and realized it was simply an ising model, which we use in physics. From there I was able to more quickly understand the way it worked and what the consequences were.
So what's the point? The point is RMI was first developed in the 1960s with RPC calls. Sun made RMI as it is because of the shortcomings of RPC. The point is SOAP was designed, to some extend to replace CORBA. If you understand CORBA, you'll probably have deeper insights into SOAP. (Heck, understanding CORBA may make you more knowledge about J2EE, which has a CORBA interface.) SMGL is the father of XML, and so forth.
I think understanding, and having experience, in different technologies will help you make connections and insights others might miss. But given two equal candidates, if one happens to know an extra language or two over the other, it wouldn't matter to me.
If you like it, do it. You should always do things you like, and I think there will be benefits. subtle at first, but over time, it will pay off.
My $.02

--Mark

If you can compare the strengths and the weaknesses of different technologies you are more likely to keep out of trouble when you decide to implement one of them.
You will know when a new technology provides a better solution to a problem instead of using it because of slick marketing.