Ask HN: Can you survive as a PHP Web Developer in 2023?
I am looking for a job as a remote PHP Web Developer but can't seem to find any.
Wondering whether PHP is still a good choice in 2023?
Wondering whether PHP is still a good choice in 2023?
Yes, it's still a good choice, but you have to build yourself a nice resume with multiple projects to present yourself.
I have noticed more and more companies are not advertising the traditional way, but do so via their own websites.
A couple of minutes ago I found the following website https://uppbeat.io/ which at its footer you can find a careers section, which leads to https://musicvine.com/
They currently have a senior backend developer position open which happens to be a Symfony!
https://musicvine.com/careers/senior-backend-developer
Give it a try, you have nothing to worry about.
Good Luck!
P.S.: You can follow another route if you like: go to https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php and look at the websites listed in there; check them for careers or how else they name it, be it jobs, vacancies, and so forth; you cannot imagine how many Laravel positions exist out there!
A big portion of the PHP stats (number of web sites using it) come from WordPress. While WP sites need less development than sites built from scratch, or with Laravel, they still need maintenance, custom code, and system administration. Someone who can keep a WP site humming and enhance it can find plenty of work.
If you can't find suitable work that has very little to do with a programming language. Businesses don't need more PHP code. They need people who can add business value and deliver on requirements. Programming languages are almost incidental in the big picture. My advice is to focus on selling yourself based on the value you offer to an employer or customer, not on a language.
So yeah, I'd say there's plenty of work to go around as far as PHP developer is concerned. Keep looking. You'll get there.
1. Well architected and testable code that is essentially dynamic Java and gets to have all of the great additions that PHP has added over the years.
2. Adhoc PHP scripts strewn about a file system that call into the DB directly or with a bad abstraction layer that's untestable.
The former is a great experience. The latter is not. I moved to different languages not out of hate for PHP, but due to the latter type being too common and me being stuck in one. I realized I'm so much happier working in a code base that has structure and is testable.
PHP is still probably among the most widely used web languages: it's just not trendy on HN for differing reasons.
As stefanos82 said, if you don't know Laravel and/or Symfony then consider learning them.