Life after the tutorial

[lobo78]

I believe this is a question that will be beneficial to many people. How does one go from having a good working knowledge of php to becoming an experienced php developer?

Basically, I'm just asking what life is like after the tutorial? There aren't really any tutorials out there for people with intermediate skills. What kind of things should people do to refine their skills with php to make them more experienced and valuable?

In my case, I will soon be graduating with a B.S. in Information Technology. I have done several projects involving PHP and MySQL, as well as developed a website that uses PHP. I really enjoy PHP and would like to pursue a career in web design.

The problem is that I don't really have work experience with php. As you can imagine, most companies don't want to hire an "entry level php developer". I'm not a complete newbie, but I want to strengthen my php coding skills. So, where do I go from here? I want to get more experience, but a tutorial isn't going to do me much good.

I imagine most of you will say, "code, code, code!!!". That's fine, but what should I code? Could you give me ideas for projects or scripts involving PHP that would be challenging for someone with an intermediate knowledge level of php? Any input would be appreciated.

[bubblenut]

I'm not sure how valid an opinion I have being only in the workplace for a year now but here's my 2p.

Coding, coding, coding is the underlying key, obviously; the more you code the more tricks you learn. I also like to find a solution to a problem and then come back to exactly the same problem a little while later and try to solve it a completely differnt way. Helping outon forums is a great way to learn, you get to think about little problems and come up with solutions, but more importantly you get to see other peoples solutions (and if they post well, how they came up with those solutions as well)

In terms of specific learning, I'd say regex (not just in php, if you're working on a *nix box a good working knowledge of the differences between the sed, awk, grep, egrep etc regex engines will save you a lot of tim), also XML is going to help you a lot with all manner of apps.

I'm a little drunk at the moment (Friday night in front of my comp with a few beers, I know, I'm sad) so I'm having difficulty thinking up much more, but when I'm sober I'll re-post.

HTH
Bubble

[Weedpacket]

Programming. Programming. Reading source code. Writing source code. Some more programming. Getting a job in it helps if by "experience" is meant "workplace experience". And then practice by doing some more programming.

[planetsim]

Theres only one way to get real good and that is code, code, code. But dont code just for the sake of it you'll just loose interest. Make something useful something for yourself, than once its complete make it better adding features or optimizing it.

[Weedpacket]

Four words: The Art of Computer Programming.

[planetsim]

so weed "of" isnt a word according to you

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by planetsim
so weed "of" isnt a word according to you No; "Programming".

[Merve]

It's his way of life.

I would try to code a forum...that would really help you. You can see how the whole thing works...i dunno...try to code what would be useful to you AND other people.

[dalecosp]

Let's talk about web-based applications aimed at niche markets.

How many stores have you been in lately and seen web apps at work?

Some electronics places I've seen, the kids working there do browsered pointy-clicky stuff for every chore on the system.

It's more advanced-*looking* than UNIX-y ncurses stuff (although there's nothing wrong with that and it's likely a tad faster), and perhaps seen as easier to learn for kids who are now growing up with the internet.