On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 6:05 PM, Alpheus Madsen <[email protected]> wrote:
> I've been looking for work for a few months now. In times past, I have > been able to readily find plenty of positions to apply to; this time > around, I've felt like I've had to struggle to find positions to apply to; > some weeks, I feel like I'm scraping the bottom of a barrel. > > Perhaps part of it is my skillset -- PHP, MySQL and JavaScript, some > Python. I have the impression that PHP is being phased out (I'd like to > say "good riddance", but, hey, that's where my experience is!) but even > then, I'd expect to see more positions. > > I talked with a recruiter this afternoon, and she says that the job market > is actually pretty good. I'm not getting that sense, though. Is it just > my imagination? Am I not looking hard enough, or looking in the wrong > places? (Mostly KSL Jobs, Stack Overflow Jobs, some LDS and BYU Jobs > boards, and some Indeed and other miscellaneous places...) Or is there a > little bit of a malaise in the job force right now? > > I thought it would be a good idea to get a reality check on this... > > > Some data: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2017 https://research.hackerrank.com/developer-skills/2018/ While there is some bias here, it is some of the best samplings we have. PHP is not dead, but it's not extremely high demand, and its pay is not as high as others. Usually when I get a recruiter contacting me for a $16/hr developer job, it's a PHP job. Never mind the idea that it's hourly in the first place (who does that?). It's not as out-of-sorts as Ruby, but Ruby also pays way better. The job market is excellent for developers, but as usual tech recruiting is still very cautious and callous. It's far easier if you know someone at a company than if you are cold-contacting. Lehi area and northward are hiring more than the Provo/Orem area, though that area is not hurting for positions either. Dice, LinkedIn, Facebook job boards, etc are also good resources to look for potentials. Those usually involve more larger companies though. Recruiters are a mixed bag. Meetups are a good place if you attend regularly, as networking is a long-term sport. People will show up to meetups just when they're between jobs and nobody can help them because they don't know the aspiring worker. Rapport is more helpful (like I would recommend you to any PHP positions if I knew of any, but only because I know you). If you're set on finding a PHP position, there are shops that do a lot more PHP than others. Qualtrics used to be PHP, though I think they're transitioning/transitioned to JavaEE. Deseret Media is a PHP shop. You probably want to search more for positions on frameworks like Laravel or CMSes like Drupal. If you're looking for a shift into other tech stacks, the networking side is probably advantageous, but is not a short term solution. -Tod Hansmann Problem Solver www.phonejanitor.com 801-618-0059 /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
