I don't want to get into the pros/cons of specific languages here. There are just too many options available and I am not fool enough to consider myself an expert on the nuances between programming languages or development environments. I'll leave that to those who live and breath this stuff.
What I want to do with this entry is emphasize the fact that the greatest tool you can add to your toolkit is "ingenuity". Sometimes you need to go outside of the box and create a solution to your problem rather than waiting for Cisco or some other vendor to solve your problem with a bit of software.
Personally, if I can't find a way to automate a task using existing tools I wonder if I can build it myself. That doesn't always work (trust me) but it works more often than not and I find the process to be a lot of fun. Then again, I am a bit of a nerd and what I find fun usually isn't by most standards. That's cool, too.