Why Choose PHP As A Career?
Most young aspirants remain confused when it comes to jobs and career opportunities in the IT field. They are apprehensive about the languages to explore and which platform or framework will offer the brightest prospects for the future.
Having said that, PHP is one of the fastest growing web development languages right now. It has especially exploded in India where PHP adoption has grown tremendously in the past 4 years. Some of the biggest names on the web have used PHP as a development language.
Below we discuss in some detail why PHP offers some very bright prospects career-wise to young aspirants.
PHP as a web development tool
Right now, the PHP framework is booming as a career option. On a global scale, more than 60% of the websites on offer run on PHP. Some of the biggest names on the internet that are powered by PHP include Yahoo, Myspace, Wikipedia, Digg, and Facebook. For those of us who are looking to adopt web development as their career option, PHP is an excellent choice to learn. Websites across varied domains such as e-commerce, CMS, and CRM are developed using PHP. Almost all business domains use PHP in some form or the other.
Open Source
PHP is an open source application. Not only is it free but a large online community constantly tweaking and chipping away at its rough edges mean that there will never be a dearth of expert know-how on how to solve any problem related to PHP. Being a PHP developer allows a developer access to a plethora of open source software such as MySql, Apache, and Linux. The frameworks that come with PHP are also available for free.
OOPS
PHP5 introduced Object Oriented Programming. Concepts such as inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism are useful when developing enterprise systems. Applications such as Joomla, Magento, and WordPress are examples of Object Oriented Programming. People with a background in C++ or Java find a lot of ease in using PHP as an Object-Oriented Language.
Easy to learn
The PHP syntax very closely resembles Java, C, and Perl. It can be easily learned through practical examples. The internet abounds in resources of high quality where one can gather a lot of information on PHP and how to work with it.
Framework availability
The PHP language comprises a large number of frameworks. It is because of these frameworks that PHP is hugely popular among developers. Using a framework has many advantages. First, the development is fast because of the reuse of code. Second, there is a significant reduction in errors owing to the use of the proven and tested code. Some of the commonly used PHP frameworks are Zend, Symfony, CakePHP, Akelos,CodeIgniter, Laravel and Yii.
Compiler-based applications
With the help of PHP, we can build Compiler Based Applications. This concept is now deployed by Magento in their e-commerce applications. Applications build in other languages can also be a part of the PHP ecosystem. As an example, many extensions in PHP were built with the help of the language C. PHP encompasses a host of applications such as MySql, HTML, and JS.
Compatible with a whole host of OS
PHP works well with UNIX, LINUX, Windows and Mac and interfaces well with MySql and Apache. In short, it can work across most operating systems. With the help of PHP, we can perform cross-platform development. This makes it a cost-effective programming language to use.
Dynamic and flexible
Websites and web applications that are built using PHP are extremely secure. It can be easily scaled and is an encrypted language. The websites and the applications refresh all by themselves without the need for manual intervention. Compared to its competitors, PHP is extremely flexible and can be customised to be suited to one’s needs. Since PHP is free, the code can be written with the help of any editors. It can also be combined with different libraries for special effects and graphics.
Resources
Whether it be frameworks, documentation tools, editors or dependency managers, PHP has a ready set of quality tools for use. There is documentation that can be found online for any aspect of PHP programming. Since PHP offers a huge number of extensions, the result can be completely customised to meet the clients’ needs.
CMS development
Since PHP can be uniquely customised to meet the needs of the customer, it is the preferred framework of development for CMS. Websites that are developed using PHP are faster. PHP can be embedded into HTML. As a result, static websites can be very easily converted to dynamic new ones.
The demand for quality PHP developers has sky rocketed in the past few years and the trend is only expected to grow in the near future. With the whole world being re-written in code, it’s anybody’s guess how fast and how high the demand for PHP developers will soar. Thus, PHP development provides an excellent career opportunity to young aspirants who want to make their mark in this world.
Job opportunities
In order to work in the field of PHP, one needs to usually have a degree in computer science or software engineering. However, if one wishes to work as a freelancer and not with any multinational, these degrees are not mandatory.
Earning potential as a fresher PHP developer is limited. However, with experience and knowledge, PHP developers can develop very high earning potential.
Over and above a lucrative career as a developer, an individual with knowledge of PHP and managerial skills can also become a PHP project manager in a reputed company. Project managers earn high salaries and enjoy a comfortable livelihood.
