PHP Developers

S

Shard

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My company has been trying to recruit intermediate/senior PHP devs since I started working here.

I'm not a dev, I work in the Business Analysis space but have strong technical competency.

Does anyone have any insight into why its so hard to find PHP developers, and its not because they're under quoting on salary expectations. Just wondering if there is a general decline in popularity of the language.

We're based in CT...
 
Strangely enough I don't know any PHP developers and a lot of my friends and acquaintances are developers.

I don't know why that is though. It looks like South Africa is very Java and .NET based server side.
 
Tell me about it. I am looking for one to help me out here in Joburg and each and every one that rocks up either doesn't feel up to the challenge or doesn't have the time.
 
Solitude said:
Strangely enough I don't know any PHP developers and a lot of my friends and acquaintances are developers.

I don't know why that is though. It looks like South Africa is very Java and .NET based server side.
Click to expand...

We've built a Dev team of 6 in Sarajevo, Bosnia in the same time it took to hire 1 in CT. And the guys we've got there are good, like really good.
 
Don't know if this is the general reason, but for me PHP is a sideline utility. I did it 'full-time' for a while but languages such as C# are more lucrative in terms of remuneration. The type of practical implementations expected from a PHP Developer was also a bit mundane so to speak.
 
Shard said:
Does anyone have any insight into why its so hard to find PHP developers...
Click to expand...

Because "senior PHP dev" is almost an oxymoron: Junior devs learn PHP because it's "easy", but generally switch to other languages as their skills mature. Sure, there are the few exceptions who really know what they are doing, but there is so much demand for them (mostly fixing/maintaining crap written by lesser devs) that they are generally quite content in their jobs.
 
Solitude said:
Strangely enough I don't know any PHP developers and a lot of my friends and acquaintances are developers.

I don't know why that is though. It looks like South Africa is very Java and .NET based server side.
Click to expand...

"They've" told me that they refuse to work in PHP, because there's no money in it. Everything is already built in PHP and anyone can buy a script somewhere, instead of hiring a PHP developer (and get a junior dev to maintain the ready-bought PHP script). So I'm sure thats why devs try to stay away from PHP.

OR they just keep telling themselves and others that.
 
PS yes, hiring a php developer from another country is like $10 per hour, why pay a local dev R50,000 per month? Issues aside, some freelancers are reliable and quick.
 
Shard said:
We've built a Dev team of 6 in Sarajevo, Bosnia in the same time it took to hire 1 in CT. And the guys we've got there are good, like really good.
Click to expand...

No ****? I'm from Bosnia. Would love to find out more about what you do and how you guys employ them over there.
 
I'm a PHP dev with 4 years experience..only problem is that I'd rather be programming Java right now...
 
the problem isn't good php developers. It's good developers in general.
 
Shard said:
Lol, you got PHP skills?
Click to expand...

Not really sure how to reply to that to be honest.

I do, but it isn't current, and what I do know, was just to get a project off the ground very quickly. But I'm pretty resourceful.
 
Pixelbender said:
PS yes, hiring a php developer from another country is like $10 per hour, why pay a local dev R50,000 per month? Issues aside, some freelancers are reliable and quick.
Click to expand...

Because hiring a dev from another country at $10 per hour is more expensive.
 
Forget hiring a PHP developer. Problem in SA is that companies expect to pay these guys peanuts and need them to do more work than what they are worth. If you are about to hire a developer, you will probably get ****! A real competent PHP developer will probably ask for a salary of no less than R1m per year.

Outsource your work to established companies or make use of freelancers.
 
Just yesterday someone asked me if I knew any php devs. The problem is I know quite a few "specialist" php devs and even a whole lot of guys who "can do" php. What I realised is that everyone who's more senior has gone into specific niche markets and stuff and isn't freelancing etc anymore. They did it for a while but then obviously ended up working more on one particular project and in some cases that's evolved into a business etc. I also been looking for people for a side project for some time and so far it hasn't worked out, actually hoping that tomorrow a contract gets signed with someone new but that could still not work out. In the mean time I decided ***** it I'll do it all myself and have been ploughing spare time into getting up to speed with all the latest tools etc and in particular Laravel 4 and now 5. So far so good, enjoying the learning even though the curve can be steep at times. I'd never be interested in a php dev job though (or any other dev job), although 60k is not bad.
 
retromodcoza said:
Because hiring a dev from another country at $10 per hour is more expensive.
Click to expand...

Not really. When I started my sites a few years ago I used a developer from the Netherlands. He was very reliable, on time, every time and delivered as promised for about 5 years. All while I'm doing the front-end and he's doing Admin stuff.

I eventually caught up on how php/mysql worked and how to input, get and display stuff from a database and started doing some of the less serious php work myself. Eventually doing everything myself and now even have the guts to convert the whole site to Wordpress.

So, my php skills turned out to work well for myself, but if I dare charge a client for php work, they'll go and search for other free solutions, everywhere else and if they can't get the ready-built solution, they'll come back. (Which equals to about 0.00001% of the time). That may also only be AFTER they've tried Freelance.com

The point is; the relationship with the Netherlands developer was a good one (lasted more than 5 years, after which I managed to start doing the stuff myself) and it didn't turn out to be expensive. I built the whole site for about $1000 and it was seriously complicated. (In my eyes)

That said: Malaysia and India has some unreliable developers.
 
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