Tips on how to efficiently find your next (or first) job as a PHP developer. Includes tips on how to formulate you resume, how to work with recruiters, how to use LinkedIn, and a lot more. Links related to this presentation can be found here: http://ampfront.tumblr.com/post/43732875343/links-from-my-presentation-landing-your-next-php-job

2. First of all, Underground
Elephant is hiring… :-)
 Underground Elephant has been gracious
enough to offer this meeting space for a
while now. Please consider them early
on in your job search.
 Get in touch with Aaron <
aaron@undergroundelephant.com> or
others here (please raise your hands,
y'all) to find out more about U.E.

3. Second of all, we've got a Job
Listings Page:
 http://www.sdphp.org/job-listings/

4. Who am I?
 Dennis Slade Jr. >> tennisbear@gmail.com
 19+ years experience implementing and
supporting critical web and desktop business
systems
 10+ years hands-on experience with *AMP web
development projects (PHP on Linux & OS X)
 11+ years experience in software support and
training
 Intensive training in resume, job searching, and
networking techniques

5. So how do you land
your next PHP job?

6. Before You Begin…
 Prepare yourself!
“Luck is the intersection of opportunity and
preparation”
 Know your story!
How have you come to this point in your
career?
What's the next chapter you'd like to write in
the story of your career?

7. Before You Begin…
 Line up your references
Inform your mentors
 Know your target salary / hourly rate
 Have code samples ready

8. Typical Steps in Getting a
Development Job
 Contact made with a hiring manager or
HR person
 Phone interview
 Skills test / coding project
 In-person or video interview
 Job offer

9. The Resume
 How long does a typical resume reader
spend on your resume?

10. The Resume
 How long does a typical resume reader
spend on your resume?
Between 6-30 seconds.

11. The Resume
 How long does a typical resume reader
spend on your resume?
Between 6-30 seconds.
 How long should your resume be?

12. The Resume
 How long does a typical resume reader
spend on your resume?
Between 6-30 seconds.
 How long should your resume be?
At most two pages. The vast majority of the
readers of your resume won't get past the
top half of the first page.

13. The Resume
 What should be in your resume?
Accomplishments and awards first, then
duties
○ If a position's duties are obvious, or if the
duties have been mentioned in a more recent
position, then there's no need to list those
duties again.
Tailor your resume as much as possible to
the specific position you're applying for.
○ Specific objective
○ Consider preparing different resumes for
different types of positions

14. The Resume
 Be succinct (precise and tidy) with your
language.
 Use keywords but don't be a slave to
them.
 Put your name in the filename of any
resumes you send. Also suggested:
your contact info in the header of each
page.
 Format: PDF or Word doc

15. Your Job Search Email Address
 NEVER use your current job's email
account. Please.
 Consider giving out a separate email
address just for your online resumes and
LinkedIn.
 Try not to use email accounts where:
The Inbox has thousands of unread messages
Spam filters catch all messages from people not
in your contact list/address book

16. Your Job Search Email Address
 Be as professional as possible with job
search email address.
Bad: spank-me@spankfriendfinder.com
Still Bad: spank-me@gmail.com
Good:
Joseph.Schmoe@gmail.com
hire-me@JosephSchmoe.com

17. Samples of your work
 GitHub, Google Code, SourceForge…

18. Samples of your work
 Linking to live sites
If a web page using your PHP code is live
and accessible, put it out there!
Make sure all real customer data has been
scrubbed clean from your samples
Don't ever give a potential employer a
username/password to use in a live system
 Do-It-Yourself (DYI) Hosting
 More control, more work to maintain

19. Getting to the hiring manager
 Through a friend/ex-colleague
 From contact on LinkedIn or similar site
 Through a recruiter
 By direct submission
To a company's careers page
On a job board
On Craigslist: possible but be careful
If contacting directly via email, send a
succinct cover letter in the body of the email.

20. Using LinkedIn
 You should be using LinkedIn. And you
should be connecting with as many friends
and former colleagues as possible.
 98% network building, 2% using the network
 Who are you looking for? Who's looking for
you?
 Ask for endorsements and
recommendations (and give some too!)
 Surfing connections' connections

21. Other Social Media
 Make sure your Facebook/G+ profile is
clean and secure.
Don't put anything into Facebook that you
wouldn't want your grandma to see.
Lock down your privacy settings, but don't
count on them.
 Should you use Facebook to network?
 What about Facebook job-networking
apps?

22. Recruiters
 Recruiters are not the devil.
Potential employers would prefer to find you
without a recruiter involved, but often a
connection can't be made without them.
The employer is paying the recruiter, not the
job seeker.
Most likely the recruiter won't be paid by the
hiring employer until you've been at the
company for 3-6 months. Leaving before this
period will leave you in the bad graces of
both the company and the recruiter.

23. Recruiters
 Know the etiquette of working with
recruiters
Be mindful of the “who showed you to the
company first” rule
When to just say no – and you can say no!
 Link to multiple recruiters in LinkedIn to
maximize your chances of success.

24. Recruiters
 Looking for a good recruiter? Lonnie
Brown is a group sponsor, and he's a
good guy.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lonnie-brown/0/6bb/b89

25. Interviewing
 Be up-to-date in your PHP/tech knowledge
 Do research on the company
What technologies do they use besides PHP?
Are they using PHP on their main website?
Who are their customers?
What's cool and/or impressive about their site or
what they do?

26. Interviewing
 Be ready to ask at least one intelligent
question
 When you don't know something asked
of you, be upfront about it
 You're interviewing them as much as
they're interviewing you
 Expect technical questions…

27. Interviewing
 Example tech interview questions
What are some of your strongest technical skills?
What technologies do you prefer working with
and why?
Briefly explain one of the most difficult technical
problems you've ever faced and how you solved
it. How did you come up with the solution?
What skills would you like to improve and which
technologies would you like to learn more about,
and why?

28. Interviewing
 Example tech interview questions
Describe your experience working with a large
software project. How did you collaborate with
team mates, how did you check in and check out
code, etc. What were some of the challenges
specific to working with a larger project?
Describe any experience working with larger
databases. How many tables, how many rows of
data (order of magnitude), how many gigabytes of
data (roughly). Explain some of the challenges
you faced and approaches that worked.

29. Interviewing
 After your in-person or video interview,
be sure to send a “thank you” email
Be specific about what you enjoyed about
the company and the people you met.
Literally ask for the job (if you still want it)

30. Other Things…
 Never trust that an email submission
has actually made it (spam filters, folder
filtering, Inbox overload)
 If you're not near the beginning of a
queue, you may as well skip that queue
 Following through with a phone call can
make a big difference
 Consider actually delivering a copy of
your resume in person

31. Other Things…
 A lot of the hiring process is proving you
can develop in PHP and other required
technologies. So don't freak out about
being tested a few times, or when
having your code evaluated by potential
employers.
 The more “at peace” you are telling why
your previous positions ended, the
better. Know your story!

32. Other Things…
 Understand your value
If you can write software, if you truly
understand the development lifecycle, and if
you can work well with others then
employers want you as much as you want
them.

33. “But I've never had a PHP job!!!”
 Don't panic!
 Code something!
Do your own thing >> GitHub
Volunteer projects for non-profits
Open source contributions
Hackathons
 Network using Meetup.com groups and other
user groups (http://sdtechscene.org/groups/)
 Consider contract-to-perm or temp positions

34. In college? Just out of college?
 Use your college employment site/office
 Internships are your friends (if you can find
one)
 Find a mentor
SDPHP has a mentoring program! 

35. Resources

36. Lifehack :: Work

37. Dice Newsletters

38. Links
 SDPHP Job Listings:
http://www.sdphp.org/job-listings/
 SD Tech Scene:
http://sdtechscene.org/
http://sdtechscene.org/groups/
 March Mingle:
http://marchmingle.com/
 LinkedIn:
http://linkedin.com/

39. Links
 Dice:
http://www.dice.com/
 Lifehack :: Work
http://www.lifehack.org/work
 A post with all the links from this presentation
- plus a few which didn’t make it - will be
posted on http://www.sdphp.org/
(I think. )

40. My Contact Info
 Dennis Slade Jr.
tennisbear@gmail.com
dennissladejr@gmail.com
@DennisSladeJr
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dennissladejr
http://dennisslade.com/hire-me.html