Every day technology renders the world we live in intricately more complex and it demands business entities and professionals to feed it in the specialist form it requires. Nowadays, recruitment agencies focus on skill rather than sector as they seek to bring the right expertise to a company to cater to the increasingly specialist world.
It is unequivocally evident that specialisation is the way forward in sectors such as IT and finance
One particular skill that is highly in demand at the moment –requested by a number of local clients coming from software houses, telecoms, the i-gaming sector and online entertainment companies – is PHP. The latter is the skill of the moment for such local businesses – a trend that is perceived internationally as well, as some critics have marked 2013 ‘the year of PHP’.
Described by enthusiasts as a ‘wonderful language’, PHP is popular because it ‘powers some insanely popular sites and applications’. This open source language is said to be easy to learn when compared to other languages; moreover, the PHP community online is vast which means it is fairly easy to resolve issues you may encounter when working with this language by asking a question in a forum, by browsing through blogs or by searching the internet in general.
There are several IT jobs out there that require this skill including web development roles, web application development and more specifically, PHP development.
A PHP professional would be responsible for seeing through the life cycle of web applications from the development process to testing and delivery. Senior PHP roles involve more responsibility including the PHP developer having to work with the SEO and web design teams; analysing and continually developing existing applications; troubleshooting and testing, as well as ensuring the latest frameworks are used to keep the company in line with the ever evolving technology.
Rasmus Lerdorf primarily created PHP in 1995 and it seems it’s here to stay as it is evident from the great demand specialist talent recruiters are seeing for PHP developers. The fact that the PHP community online is so vast with forums and blogs being readily available makes it much easier for those who wish to specialise in this area to do so.
Besides the online community, nowadays one can choose to be trained in this area through coaching whether it is online or in person.
Specialisation being key here, it is also recommend one takes on interim work revolving around PHP to gain work experience and enhance one’s professional portfolio in this area.
It is unequivocally evident that specialisation is the way forward in sectors such as IT and finance. Becoming a champion of a skill will give anyone an edge over those who choose to be jack-of-all-trades and in a world that demands expertise, these champions will reign working in their area of choice.
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Sarah Borg is brand officer at Castille Resources Ltd.