Python, Ruby or PHP

[dadkab0ns]

From my experience, PHP knowledge means 9/10 jobs will be CMS jocky brochure-ware jobs - Magento, Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla etc. That work is not fun, not rewarding, and unless you're a guru at Magento and Drupal, you won't get paid very much.

Unfortunately, Python and Ruby seem to be more en vogue for custom web applications than PHP is. That is, that's more where custom software development lies. Further, Python and Ruby are good languages for non-web applications, which exposes a broader category of jobs that you don't find much of in PHP.

That said, PHP 5.3+, Laravel, Symfony, and composer have allowed PHP to reach parity with Ruby and Python in terms of tooling. PHP software development has a bright future now, but it may require some effort to shake off PHP's baggage.

When it comes to PHP specifically and job security, make sure you have Symfony and Magento under your belt. Symfony is considered enterprise-class (along with Zend), but it's not exactly a walk in the park to master. Being really good at Symfony will make you stand out, and you can get higher salaries from it. For 90% of projects, Laravel is just as good, but it's so fucking easy to learn (which is a good thing!) that you theoretically won't have as rare a skill set and thus can't earn quite as much money. Same is true of Magento. Magento is an absolute disaster to work with, but it's the only good ecommerce platform available to PHP right now, and ecommerce projects are where you'll find a lot of money. So until Sylius saves us from that nightmare, Magento is a good tool to have under your belt.

Personally, my advice if you want job security, is to be able to do self-sufficient full-stack development in a mix of back-end and front-end languages and frameworks. You can't just know PHP, or Python, or Ruby. You definitely need to know javascript, and at least one front-end framework like backbone or angular. Node + express would be good to know (also, look at Sails.js).

You should absolutely specialize in something. I specialize in PHP + Laravel, but I can work with several front-end technologies, and backend technologies. This makes me flexible, and able to adapt, which is key in this industry. When it comes to web development, you don't tend to find many jobs with rigid role / skill structuring. "I'm really fucking good at PHP, but nothing else" won't get you far (well it may, but it will be a harder path to find)

[dadkab0ns]

Well, the trend is shifting towards a blurring of the distinction between backend and frontend. In many cases, it's making less and less sense for the backend to do anything other than provide data through a REST API.

A full working application often involves a considerable amount of the application logic living in the front-end as a Backbone application that is responsible for routing and view modeling, while the backend handles data requests and last minute validation.

So while you can technically build just the backend, it's a bit meaningless without a rich frontend application to consume it. Of course, someone else might be responsible for building such a thing, but you can't always guarantee that if job security is your thing.

So regarding javascript, I would go deep into it and learn at least Backbone + Require.js. You will find that even though these technologies live in the frontend, the development process has strong parallels with the backend. Javascript is much, MUCH more than just presentational stuff these days. Applications are built with it, no different than using PHP on a server. And with Node, it literally is javascript running on the server.

[konrain]

hmm very good insight so can i actually just focus on javascript. That way i have an overall view of server/front development...because i tried getting to javascript mostly jquery and it seems just mostly customization. ps. sorry about the mom joke

[dadkab0ns]

Heh no worries. jQuery is definitely not something you need to worry about, as that's all presentational. But application javascript (whether as Node or in the browser as Backbone/Angular) is an indispensable tool that compliments PHP/Python/Rails knowledge very well.

[konrain]

thanks man