Re: Experiences finding PHP jobs
From: Randell D. (please.post.and.share_at_news.group.com)
Date: 11/18/03
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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 05:13:15 GMT
jn wrote:
> I would like to ask how many of you have found a full-time position doing
> PHP programming? It seems that these sorts of jobs are hard to come
> by....most employers want ASP and Microsoft crap instead. I don't want to
> learn that.
>
> Has anyone found a good PHP job? Or do most of you just freelance? I've been
> an IC for a year, and the work hasn't been real steady.
>
> Thanks
>
>
I lived in the UK since 1989 and was a contractor / consultant since
1994 - For the first two years, my resume went via the postal system.
Since 1996 though all (and I mean all) my contract work came via
www.jobserve.com - This included some contracts in other parts of
Europe. On a few occassions since 2000, I did searches for PHP and only
once found a pure PHP based role (six month contract for a bank in
Frankfurt Germany - I didn't apply because at the time I didn't think my
PHP was strong enough).
However... All of my contract work came via recruiting agencies and
instead of direct approach to a company by me. This is in part because
UK (and perhaps European companies in general) use a third party for the
recruiting of contractors/temporary workers to avoid employee/employer
relationships (because the onus is on the contractor to pay their own
taxes/medical/etc) and by creating a third party it reduces liability...
This spawned a cowboy market of recruiters in the UK (and probably in
the rest of Europe) though a handful of recruiters stood out among the
rest because of their efforts in understanding the requirements of the
company and the abilities of the contractor. I know about three or four
recruiters who actually do more than shovel resumes/cv's and I spoke
with them when I was back in the UK earlier this year. From what I
understand, a mix of skills is in greater demand - LAMP
(Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP (or Perl)) was set as an example. Or where my
HPUX admin skills were sufficient before, an employer/company now looks
for a mix of HPUX and Oracle... They want more bang for their buck since
its a buyers market for those with a skillset to sell.
You must remember - its free (as in beer) for you to have a full LAMP
installation at home, and to teach yourself - and there is no reason why
anybody else cannot do the same. Because of this, and because of a bit
of a downturn (when compared to the high life of the late 1990's) you
have less work and more folk fighting to get whatever is available...
thus while it is good to have one or two 'main skills' its nice to have
others too that will give you a bit of a lead over the competition -
even (dare I say it) Microsoft skilset since chances are you will work
under a Microsoft desktop environment (until you convince the customer
otherwise)...
I've read some of the posts here that replied to your question and one
chap said that the role he has was originally advertised as an ASP/PHP
job that has eventually turned in to more PHP and less ASP. I'd
suggest, like him, that you concentrate on broadening your skills - I'd
even suggest working on a project of your own and having it online for
prospective employers to examine - If you're short on ideas, approach a
charity and do something for them... Make sure your skillset include
some sort of DBA knowledge (hence why I've picked up MySQL this year)...
all of this helps... If you think I'm blowing smoke - well - I found
that by knowing my "position" in the job market, it allowed me to get
every job (fulltime or contract) since 1989 that ever went as far as
face to face interview - I got this in part by knowing my abilities (ie
I am not a guru, but I'm no dumbo either) and doing my best to keep one
step ahead in the market by concentrateing on broadening my skillset for
what might lead for the year ahead.
Lastly.. Even though my heart lie's with SUSE Linux, I sadly found that
Red Hat contracts were more likely to be advertised, and a customers
lack of understanding on the little difference betweeen flavours meant I
was sometimes excluded from consideration purely because of having
SUSE instead of Red Hat when the linux administration requirement was a
"nice to have requirement" as opposed to a "must have"... Maybe SUSE
will take a larger piece of the market now that it has the bank balance
of Novell pushing it... I don't know... but you need to consider all
these factors to help find yourself work... and even after all that,
your preferred flavour of Linux could be a deciding factor between being
choosen and being an "also ran".
In about three to six more months when (hopefully) my immigration
documentation completes here in Canada, I figure I'll be looking for
work just like you... Until then I have to be content with volunteering!
Best of luck!
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