I’m 41. I’ve been working in the lamp stack since 2002. My current job lasted 10 years. Now they are letting me go because the company is having financial problems.
I don’t code for fun. I don’t write open source projects. I have a wife and kids. I just want to make a living. I don’t use frameworks. I don’t unit test. I don’t work on an agile team. I don’t do scrum.
I just coded an e-commerce app from scratch in php using smart templates the last 10 years. And I was good at it. I worked remotely.
Now if I try to find a job where I am located they don’t pay enough. If I look for jobs else where that allow remote they all want genius coders who unit test…know all the framework…work in agile …do scrum meetings…have open source code…
Or the job is a good fit but I would have to move. I can’t do that to my family
I don’t know what I am going to do. Doesn’t anyone want a regular guy who codes anymore?
Anyone want to see my resume. I can anonymize it. I no coding genius but I’m not that bad.
What am I going to do? Maybe someone here can help?
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Nobody knows “all the frameworks”.
10 years working on a lamp stack is worth something. 10 years of shipping code is valuable experience. I can’t see why you would not be able to pickup and learn a php framework quickly if it’s a project requirement.
Same thing with agile or scrum meetings. I can’t see why it’s a show stopper.
One thing I’m wondering when reading your story is: perhaps you’re not a happy php developer ? I used to be a lamp developer for years myself then I discovered ruby and rails and haven’t looked back. Ruby makes coding more fun for me. 10 years later, the market is still strong for Rails developers.
I you ever decide to learn rails, I would be happy to give you tips.
Did you take a look at this site? https://weworkremotely.com
Good luck
I wrote a long post about this, don’t remember the thread, but I get it. I got the same response when I went through it too, “pick up a new language, take a contract gig for a few months and you’ll be back in it, no problemo”.
Well, yeah, I could get interviews but I didn’t want to be like a friend of mine who worked while his family had Thanksgiving dinner, and drove 2 hours to work, one way. And then there is all of the above that you mentioned where the industry moved on to the latest fad and you were back there laying the legacy tracks as a good soldier just trying to get along in life.
There’s no good answer. Keep plugging, learning and something will come up, eventually.
Most companies, I think, want a “regular programmer,” but the new trend in recruiting is that every developer wants to think that they are a special snowflake, so that’s what they put in the job postings to attract people.
Apply anyway. Half the time, the job postings are junk because people don’t knew what they want, they see another posting and think “that sounds good” and scavenge it.
Where are you having trouble? Finding jobs to apply for, passing the phone screen, passing the technical interview? I’d love to take a look at your resume to see if can help. One suggestion I can make right now is, if you’re looking for a remote job, your resume and any cover letters should clearly state that you are successful at remote development - as plainly as possible.
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