Hire a PHP Developer!

PHP is a backend development language for web and other products. Although the IT community raises the question “Is PHP dead?” annually, this language is used on 76.5% of websites (according to W3Techs data). This makes PHP one of the most widely used programming languages.

We’ll share a guide to hiring an experienced PHP developer: requirements, essential technologies, and tips on how to find specialists in website development on Laravel, Symfony, or other frameworks. Below, we’ll tell you about ITExpert recruiters’ experience in filling PHP positions.

Who is a PHP developer?

A PHP developer is a backend developer who uses the PHP scripting language.

PHP is mainly utilized as the backbone for websites and web services, but it is no longer just a language for old-school Internet forums. PHP is the go-to for developing CMS and eCommerce projects, with notable examples including Facebook (Meta), Slack, Mailchimp, Wikipedia, and WordPress. For instance, Symfony Developers are tasked with crafting modern microservice architectures, a challenge easily tackled by PHP frameworks.

What should be in the arsenal of a proficient PHP developer?

Critical skills for a proficient PHP developer include:

• Extensive expertise in backend development.
• Knowledge of development environments such as PHPStorm or Zend Studio.
• Familiarity with unit-testing tools like PHPUnit, Behat, and Codeception.
• Mastery of package management with Composer.
• Depending on the project, knowledge of frameworks, microservices, and CI/CD tools.

Some of the developer’s essential soft skills include time management, a comprehensive approach to problem-solving, and leadership qualities.

Mykola Kliestov

CTO and co-founder at ITExpert

“It may seem that PHP is one of the simplest development languages, and therefore, finding such candidates is a fundamental task for recruiting. However, this is a delusion. Successful hiring only gets more complicated — recruiters must select qualified specialists among hundreds of available candidates.

The Middle PHP developers’ markers help them with this — proficiency in PHP Standard Recommendation (PSR) and, of course, the principles of OOP and SOLID, which are relevant for all serious projects in development.

PHP developers can also use frameworks — which speed up the work considerably and allow you to advance your product to the next level. This is a sign of more senior specialists. Recruiting candidates with strong knowledge of Laravel, Symfony, or other frameworks is as difficult as finding any other qualified IT specialists.”

Let’s take a look at popular and rare PHP frameworks below.

Laravel

Laravel developers become the nominees for working with the most popular and trending PHP framework. The pros of this framework include ease of learning, many templates and patterns, and convenience for individual and large corporate projects. In addition, it significantly speeds up page loading: caching management is one of the key features of Laravel. Finding a developer with experience using this framework is challenging for IT recruiters; employers are actively competing for talent.

Symfony

This is one of the most popular PHP frameworks and an excellent choice for assignments on modern projects. It can be compared to Spring for Java Developer’s work — many different modules open up various application possibilities. For example, Symfony is convenient for creating microservice architecture.

And also Symfony developer is a “rare fruit” in the hiring market. According to Stackoverflow 2023, only 3.2% of programmers use this framework. Finding Symfony developer specialists is not so easy — you must have knowledge of sourcing on various platforms and be able to screen the technical experience of specialists.

Zend

Zend Framework developers are relatively scarce. This tool is acclaimed for its simplicity, speed, stability, and scalability, providing reusable and extensible code. Zend Framework specialists work at renowned companies like Cisco WebEx and BNP Paribas.

Finding a zend framework developer is a hard-hitting task; such specialists are critically hard to find and are actively moving to the more popular and in-demand stack.

Other frameworks

In addition to the technologies mentioned above, a PHP developer can also code in Yii, Kohana, CodeIgniter, Falcon, and other frameworks. However, finding enough interested candidates with such experience is getting harder and harder every year.

How to look for a PHP programmer: checklist

Let’s go through the basic steps of recruiting:

1. Form a candidate’s portrait. Note which requirements are must-haves and which can be conceded for faster and more efficient hiring.
2. Write down the vacancy’s strengths and the working conditions: whether the PHP developer will work remotely, in an office, or on a hybrid — what is the budget for the position, available perks, bonuses, etc.
3. Delegate the vacancy to internal and external recruiters. They’ll create a sourcing strategy and tell you where to look for PHP developers.

Are you looking to expedite your search for PHP developer resumes? Reach out to an IT recruiting agency. ITExpert boasts an active candidate database covering a broad range of positions, supported by a team of recruiters committed to delivering swift and effective results.

4. Invite candidates for interviews. The best PHP developer resumes that deserve your attention are worth noticing — invite the most relevant candidates for an interview first.
5. Evaluate the professionals and provide them with feedback.
6. Send a job offer to the candidate you want on your team, handle all objections, and be flexible in your offer.
7. Follow the principles of quality onboarding and adaptation. If a developer doesn’t pass the probationary period, hiring will need to be done from scratch, and an additional budget will need to be allocated.

Important: There is no one-size-fits-all “PHP developer site” that will contain all candidates. Recruiting spans job boards, anonymous IT job search resources, LinkedIn, niche resources, and internal hiring events. And each option has its limitations. Sometimes, finding a PHP developer resume that fits your project and is actively considering job openings is a tall order.

Search for a PHP Specialist with ITExpert

Do you need a PHP developer for your project? Key IT terminology or complex requirements are no problem for us — ITExpert recruiters are technically savvy and know niche resources to handle rare candidates. We can help you find a PHP programmer in a suitable timeframe!

Since 2015, the team of ITExpert IT recruiting agency has been hiring tech/non-tech IT specialists for companies in Ukraine and around the world, from the USA to Israel. Sony, Deloitte, and Depositphotos are among our clients.

Finding candidates is only half the battle. We sell the vacancy by analyzing the candidate’s needs and the company’s offer and select only the most relevant specialists. Hire skillful web developers with Laravel, Symfony, or only PHP skills with the ITExpert team!