Where are the PHP programmers?

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Andrewc

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Seems like at least in Cape Town a big shortage of PHP developers.

This ofcourse is sky rocketing their salaries. Junior devs wanting to step in at around R15k.

I know a architect and he told me that after 7 years of studying a Architect can expect to step into a job with a salary just a little more than that.

Time required to know PHP? maybe 1 year... and you can pretty much teach yourself.

**My nephew recently went to CTI and did C# :confused:
Im just wondering if colleges are finding out what skills are lacking and get people to follow that path.
 
The problem with PHP is its an easy language to get into and the majority of so called PHP developers know nothing about development. I've worked with so called senior PHP developers (well that is what they call themselves) where their work was that of an absolute junior.

The real shortage is for skilled developers.

I'm leaving my employer in two weeks time and they have yet to find a suitable PHP developer to replace me. And its not like we pay bad at all. The majority of CV's on file are useless and the few that can be considered are being given offers from multiple employers.

Also in the real development world you should be cross skilled and not limited to any language. I myself am primarily a PHP developer but also use Python on a regular basis. I can code in Ruby, Assembler, Pascal, C/C++, erlang, Delphi, etc
 
Andrewc said:
...
Time required to know PHP? maybe 1 year... and you can pretty much teach yourself.

....
Click to expand...

Yes and no. You need your software foundations first which are language neutral. If you don't have these then its 5 years, if you do from previous development experience or studies, then yes, 1 year.

I taught myself PHP in one month. I actually got the job as a PHP developer without knowing anything more than a <?php echo "Hello World"; ?> so I used my evenings during my notice period to learn PHP. But I had been developing as a hobby for 20 years before that.
 
I think there are plenty of PHP skilled people around but they tend to work on a freelance or per project basis as the salaries offered are pretty dismal.

I have about 4 years of PHP & MySql experience and was just recently offered a starting salary of 5K as a Junior Developer.

As that does not even cover my rent, let alone the rest of my expenses I rather quote and do work on a per project basis.

At the moment I am earning about 1k a day for PHP work on a freelance basis.

Unfortunately most organisations just dont have the funds like that to pay someone on a full time basis hence the decision to go out on my own.
 
Oh, there are plenty of PHP developers.

As said, it's skilled developers(of any nature really) that are in shortage.
People take PHP on because somebody told them to, or because it's easy.

At our company, we searched long and hard for developers, but there are so little that it's absurd.
Most can't even pass a written skills tests off of W3Schools.
Okay, that's a bit harsh, and it's our own test, but their literacy of the language itself is horrible and forget about any other programming-related concepts.

Skilled developers are already employed, and earning enough to keep them wherever they are.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
LOL. And I forgot to mention BASIC as in real BASIC before GWBASIC :) We have a Delphi developer in our company.
Click to expand...

I had computer studies as a subject at school where we programmed in Fortran on punch cards!
 
nand said:
Oh, there are plenty of PHP developers.
...
Skilled developers are already employed, and earning enough to keep them wherever they are.
Click to expand...

I would probably agree with you.
But there are alot of factors to consider... not only salary.
I am a PHP developer (and I know I am a good one :cool: you're welcome to disagree) and pretty much happy where I am right now. Not that it pays very well, but
1. Its just 2Kms away from my home (I can even walk)
2. I have a good relationship with my boss
3. Hence I can jump into the car and go look after my kids at home, whenever there is an emergency and phone back later to give explanations... or I can even work from home when nanny doesn't show up.
4. Based on the above, my salary is not really a complaint for the moment.
4. etc.

So yeah.
 
Feeling left out here, I think over the years you become proficient in many languages, I am a dot net guy, no work where i live so i just do my own thing. I've never worked in the formal environment yet have been developing since VB4, I kinda stuck to vb although I tried PHP last month because i wanted to do a really quick Facebook app. Sadly Facebook Aps are much quicker in PHP, so that That was my first real look at PHP and I found it easy, Over the years my only interest in PHP was problem solving and small scripts for a friend who loves Wordpress.

Many times I have wished I would just have gotten a job, I probably would be earning bigger figures by now, I doubt I would pass many industry test considering I've skilled up on my own over almost 20 years, working on my own on e-com projects mainly for myself and friends who have jobs. I recently took the decision to stop helping friends out, which has just resulted in me knowing who the real friends are.

Anyway I do see loads of jobs in php cant decide if that is because there are so many agents out there trying to place the same positions or if there really is a shortage.
 
Paratex said:
Feeling left out here, I think over the years you become proficient in many languages, I am a dot net guy, no work where i live so i just do my own thing. I've never worked in the formal environment yet have been developing since VB4, I kinda stuck to vb although I tried PHP last month because i wanted to do a really quick Facebook app. Sadly Facebook Aps are much quicker in PHP, so that That was my first real look at PHP and I found it easy, Over the years my only interest in PHP was problem solving and small scripts for a friend who loves Wordpress.

Many times I have wished I would just have gotten a job, I probably would be earning bigger figures by now, I doubt I would pass many industry test considering I've skilled up on my own over almost 20 years, working on my own on e-com projects mainly for myself and friends who have jobs. I recently took the decision to stop helping friends out, which has just resulted in me knowing who the real friends are.

Anyway I do see loads of jobs in php cant decide if that is because there are so many agents out there trying to place the same positions or if there really is a shortage.
Click to expand...

There is a shortage.
 
Aren't most PHP shops these days, basically small agencies doing WordPress/Joomla/Drupal?

The spaghetti in WordPress doesn't warrant the need to be a "master of fine code".

The CMS market is big, but it's also very competitive.

The shortage could be explained by what the other guys have mentioned. The agencies want guys who have 3-5 years exp. and can only afford to pay them between 10K-15K. In that case, you'd fare better running your own thing and using elance/odesk/freelancer/some-other-freelance-site.
 
noob_saibot said:
Aren't most PHP shops these days, basically small agencies doing WordPress/Joomla/Drupal?

The spaghetti in WordPress doesn't warrant the need to be a "master of fine code".

The CMS market is big, but it's also very competitive.

The shortage could be explained by what the other guys have mentioned. The agencies want guys who have 3-5 years exp. and can only afford to pay them between 10K-15K. In that case, you'd fare better running your own thing and using elance/odesk/freelancer/some-other-freelance-site.
Click to expand...

No

Facebook uses PHP. Most dating sites use PHP. PHP is used for enterprise development. Its used in the betting industry. Ecommerce, etc etc

You are confusing HTML developer with PHP developers.
 
php is easy, surprised there is a shortage. After learning java, PHP was kind of identical and picked up immediately. Taken about 2 years to get to a point where it seems to easy, things just take time to actually do.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
No

Facebook uses PHP. Most dating sites use PHP. PHP is used for enterprise development. Its used in the betting industry. Ecommerce, etc etc

You are confusing HTML developer with PHP developers.
Click to expand...

Like how you make sure you mention dating sites:P
 
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