How to Hire a Remote PHP Developer For a Startup
Hey I’m Oleksii. I’m a web developer with 5+ years of experience. All I learn along that time I will share here: medium.com/@ofedorchak68.
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PHP programmer is a specialist working with the PHP programming language (Hypertext Preprocessor), created in 1995 to generate HTML web pages. A distinctive feature of this language in comparison with others is the flexibility and relative ease of development. Therefore, PHP is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to quickly learn the profession of a web developer and earn a solid income by working at will in the office, remotely, or in freelance mode.
According to the TIOBE index, which reflects the level of demand for the programming language in search engines, PHP at the end of each year confidently holds the top ten, usually located in 7–9 places.
The popularity and relevance of PHP by TIOBE
Well, the popular web resource GitHub indicates that PHP has confidently secured 4th place since 2014.
In addition, search engine statistics say that 80% of websites whose traffic exceeds 10 million users per month use PHP. If there is no opinion that this is an overly popular and popular programming language, then it’s enough to note that even Wikipedia and Facebook use it.
Given this prevalence, it is not surprising that the PHP developer never sits without work and can count on solid profit figures, working in comfortable conditions. Now it remains to find out what such programmers do and how much they are paid in various regions of the world?
What are PHP developer responsibilities
The main responsibilities of a PHP developer are:
- Creation of sites, individual pages, or modules, as well as testing their performance.
- Preparation of technical reports.
- Implementation of additional external and internal systems on the site.
- Optimization of the web resource, as well as technical support (improved performance, increased security, etc.).
The responsibilities of the programmer may also include:
- website launch and its further administration;
- search and elimination of work errors;
- improved functionality;
- interaction with other specialists.
In short: he is responsible for the development and maintenance of the back-end.
PHP Developer Skills
A general list of what the PHP developer should know and do is as follows:
- Work with the composer — a package manager for PHP, which is a set of ready-made scripts for work.
- Create autotests to verify written code to make sure it is working.
- Provide code flexibility and optimize it by eliminating garbage and making pages work faster.
- Know HTML + CSS + JavaScript to understand what objects on the site are responsible for what, how they look, work, etc.
- Use MVC (Model-View-Controller) algorithms — models of interface separation, data distribution schemes and control logic.
- Know and apply at least 3–5 frameworks: Laravel, CodeIgniter, yii2, Symfony, Zend, etc.
- Apply Ajax — building dynamic user interfaces for web applications.
- Effectively distribute the load.
- Know the popular engines (CMS) for creating sites: WordPress, Joomla, MODx, Drupal, and others
- To be able to manage a MySQL database: connect, select, send commands, process results.
- Work with database architecture, normalizing them, and creating nested queries.
- Know the basic programming patterns, understanding which of them in a given situation solve the task faster.
This is not a complete list of what the PHP developer does. In fact, he is required to create a comfortable interface for work to the customer, layout designer, marketer, SEO specialist, and other specialists.
PHP Developer Seniority Levels
As in many other IT professions, specialists working with the PHP language are divided by experience into the following main categories:
- Junior — beginner, junior specialist;
- Middle — confident middling, able to independently perform most of the tasks;
- Senior is a professional.
- Team Lead — controls the work of other specialists, assumes responsibility for making decisions, and is able to organize the work of programmers.
Typically, employers have a number of criteria for certain categories of specialists that need to be met. In this regard, it is useful to look at what expectations need to be met in order to get a well-paid job.
Junior PHP Developer
It is important for a beginner to be able to understand the popular CMS (site engine). By CMS is meant a system for managing key functions of a website. Often, the engine includes ready-made modules designed to perform specific tasks. Yes, and individual CMS have a pronounced focus for practical use.
For example, WordPress (WP) is ideal for blogging, Magento and Opencart are often used for an online store, and DLE can be used for a news site.
A junior specialist should usually:
- have successful development experience for at least one of the common engines (WordPress, MODx, Magento, etc.);
- know PHP and MySQL;
- Understand how MVC / OOP works
- have basic knowledge of git.
The main skill of an associate is training. At this point, you should absorb the information like a sponge.
Middle PHP developer
An experienced PHP programmer must:
- have at least 2–3 years of PHP development experience;
- Know and put into practice MVC
- work confidently with Git, MySQL, PHP5 and PHP7;
- write Unit-tests, Rest API;
- have basic knowledge of Angular, VueJS and React;
- Demonstrate advanced JavaScript, CSS, and HTML skills.
The average professional is often assigned the responsibility of reviewing the code for the younger ones.
Senior PHP Developer
A professional should not only freely navigate in all of the above, but also have developed leadership qualities in order to organize the work of the team. To do this, he will also need knowledge of agile development processes: Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and others.
How much does it cost to hire a PHP developer?
The annual salary of a programmer in the USA reaches 74 thousand dollars, in Canada this amount varies between 50 thousand and 52 thousand. In the countries of the European Union and in developed countries, salaries are approximately the same but rarely rise above $35,000.
The salary of a programmer in Germany, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Croatia rises among highly qualified and highly specialized specialists, among computer engineers appointed by project or department managers. Therefore, programmers should study programming languages and deepen their knowledge in the field of web development, Android, and digital technologies. Table 2. Programming language and wages of programmers in US dollars/month.
The best place to hire PHP developers is Ukraine as an ideal country with quality/price correlation.
Where to find a remote PHP developer?
Upwork
Upwork is a large freelance exchange for finding remote jobs for various specialties, especially IT, which began its journey in 2015 after the merger of such well-known freelance exchanges as Elance and oDesk. Every freelancer has definitely heard about Upwork. Upwork covers over 180 countries and 2700+ skills. Upwork has 12 million registered freelancers and 5 million registered customers. In addition, 3 million jobs are posted annually for a total of approximately $1 billion dollars, making Upwork the largest freelance exchange market.
The client is charged with a payment processing amount of 2.75%. Customers in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and some countries in the Eurozone may be eligible to pay a fixed monthly fee of $25 as an alternative to 2.75% of the payout.
Toptal
Only the best freelancers can join their platform, so if you want to hire the top% 3 freelancers in the world, then this is the place to hire them.
The cost of hiring a freelancer from Toptal depends on the type of role, but you can expect to pay from 60 to 200 dollars per hour. Toptal boasts 95% of successful trials, with $0 for the top 3% of the global freelancer. You will be presented to candidates within 24 hours after registration and 90% of clients hire the first candidate that Toptal represents.
If you need help only in a small project or you are on a tight budget and can afford only inexperienced and cheap freelancers — then Toptal is not for you. Toptal’s rigorous talent selection process ensures that you hire only the best freelancers — proven, reliable, and experts in design, development, finance, and project and product management.
Guru
This freelance exchange is considered multidisciplinary, with more than 220 categories for order types, but most of the projects are in the niches of web design and graphic design. There is no hourly tracking here. As on most freelance platforms, you can find lots of PHP developers.
If you feel you have something to discuss with me about hiring, please just join me in linkedin:
Or contact me via email: ofedorchak68@gmail.com!
