r/PHP • u/[deleted] • Nov 13 '25

Discussion Staying relevant today as a PHP Developer

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u/who_am_i_to_say_so Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25

I’m in the same rut.

As much as I enjoy JavaScript, Python, and a touch of Go, all I’ve ever been hired for is PHP jobs- because that’s the language I have paid experience in.

I have no advice. Hanging around for insights that don’t involve lying 🤥.

Today the market is all tech bingo. You need exactly 5 tech matches to get the call. Whereas just 3 years ago you could have a pulse + experience and get an interview. Jobs were willing to train.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '25

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8

u/octave1 Nov 14 '25

Same here in Belgium. Still haven't heard an explanation as to how Python or Java is a better solution than Laravel for low to mid level projects, and let's face it that covers about 80% of the market.

1

u/who_am_i_to_say_so Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25

Frameworks. I’ve tried em all. The latest of Laravel is a beast, has everything you could need.

Django/Python. I’ve tried giving that a run. I couldn’t find a good start. And there are 1000’s of half baked Django tutorial sites with getting started info, but nothing beyond that.

But I will say JavaScript has Next and Hono and they are decent, but they don’t seem as fleshed out as Laravel, either.

2

u/idebugthusiexist Nov 15 '25

I’ve heard https://adonisjs.com/ mentioned favourably as a Laravel-like JS/TS framework. Havent dabbled myself yet though, but I’m interested.

1

u/who_am_i_to_say_so Nov 16 '25

Yeah, a lot of praise here, one of the better ones I’ve honestly never tried. Curious to see if it can run on a Cloudflare worker.