[madcrazydrumma]

Hey everyone!

The title pretty much suggests this... so here goes 😵

I plan to be a web developer after doing my Computer Science degree in 3 years, but I am wondering what key skills I should learn to help boost my CV and online portfolio.

I already know quite a lot of PHP but I have never touched upon Ruby on Rails. I have however done quite a bit of Ruby itself as a standalone language.

The big question... What would be more useful to a hiring company in the near future: PHP or Ruby?

As well as this, what other skills would you recommend me learning for the next 3 years that would be of more use to me and my CV?

Thanks 🤝

[Exemplification]

You'll probably find jobs with older more stable businesses with PHP while RoR is more popular by startup. From my observations that is what it seems like anyway.

Neither are going anywhere in the next several years and both are skills that are sought after. Changing your focus just because it might look good on a CV is just going to reduce what you learn in depth about a language and having that in depth knowledge may be the deciding factor on a job.

[Tasemu]

I find it usually goes ruby for startups, php midsize then ruby again for monolithic sized platforms. I think either are fine to go for though I am slightly biased towards Ruby because I prefer it significantly to develop in.

[madcrazydrumma]

Are there any major differences that would make Ruby a more preferred language to use?

[Haxalot]

No one can answer this question because each company has their own technology preferences. And there have been endless debates of what languages should be used for server-side application development - most of the time it simply comes down to personal preference.

You said that you would like to be a web developer after graduating in three years time. So why not familiarise yourself with both during that time? If you're already familiar with PHP, then why not continue with that for now (and perhaps look into a couple of frameworks like Laravel), and then take a look into Ruby and its Rails framework for a different approach to software development. It will be far more beneficial to you to look into both (as well as other web development languages/frameworks too!).

[madcrazydrumma]

No one can answer this question because each company has their own technology preferences. And there have been endless debates of what languages should be used for server-side application development - most of the time it simply comes down to personal preference.

You said that you would like to be a web developer after graduating in three years time. So why not familiarise yourself with both during that time? If you're already familiar with PHP, then why not continue with that for now (and perhaps look into a couple of frameworks like Laravel), and then take a look into Ruby and its Rails framework for a different approach to software development. It will be far more beneficial to you to look into both (as well as other web development languages/frameworks too!).

Do companies nowadays tend to use web development frameworks such as Laravel? If so what frameworks would recommend I look into?

I'm currently using the SASS (SCSS) framework for css and JQuery/AJAX for JavaScript

[~Dec]

I'll sum this up for you.

If you want to enjoy your work, and push code quickly, learn Ruby.
If you want to hate your work, but have more job availability by being in high demand, learn PHP.
If you want to enjoy your work, be in high demand, be on the bleeding edge and have fun while learning, learn Node.js
If you want to be an amazing programmer, learn all three.

Of the frameworks that companies tend to use nowadays in all systems, based on experience I've had working as a professional:

PHP - Laravel
Ruby - Ruby on Rails, Sinatra
Node.js - Express, Hapi, Restify, Sails.js

There's also a lot of traction in regards to Meteor, and while "node-like" it isn't exactly Node.

On the frontend, there's lots of demand for people who know Backbone.js, AngularJS and Ember.js - however, Facebook's React.js is garnering incredible amounts of interest at an incredibly fast pace.

[madcrazydrumma]

I'll sum this up for you.

If you want to enjoy your work, and push code quickly, learn Ruby.
If you want to hate your work, but have more job availability by being in high demand, learn PHP.
If you want to enjoy your work, be in high demand, be on the bleeding edge and have fun while learning, learn Node.js
If you want to be an amazing programmer, learn all three.

Of the frameworks that companies tend to use nowadays in all systems, based on experience I've had working as a professional:

PHP - Laravel
Ruby - Ruby on Rails, Sinatra
Node.js - Express, Hapi, Restify, Sails.js

There's also a lot of traction in regards to Meteor, and while "node-like" it isn't exactly Node.

On the frontend, there's lots of demand for people who know Backbone.js, AngularJS and Ember.js - however, Facebook's React.js is garnering incredible amounts of interest at an incredibly fast pace.

That's the best answer I've got! Thank you 🤝

I'll workout a plan to fit in with university so I can further develop my skills, I like the sound of Node.js so I'll look into it

[Haxalot]

If you want to hate your work, but have more job availability by being in high demand, learn PHP.

High demand, yes. Hate your work, what? I'm familiar with a number of languages, and PHP is by far my most favourite. This point simply comes down to personal preference, so please don't spread falsities like this around.

If you want to be an amazing programmer, learn all three.

Agreed.

PHP - Laravel

ZF2 and Symphony are also quite popular candidates.

[Warren Buffett]

Definitely start with PHP. RoR is slower than PHP but still as extensive. I would definitely start with PHP first.

[~Dec]

High demand, yes. Hate your work, what? I'm familiar with a number of languages, and PHP is by far my most favourite. This point simply comes down to personal preference, so please don't spread falsities like this around.

Sorry if I'm a little disdained when I speak of languages I find just a little "unimpressive", it's just that I got my certification from Zend before Laravel even came out - back then the inconsistencies in namespaces were a huge pain in the ass, the on-by-default security-impeding "easter eggs" were cause of much headache and the language just wasn't very intuitive in general, I felt embarrassed whenever I wrote code in PHP... even though I was following best practice it was just a mess to work with. And a lot of people shared that opinion at the time. So what I was saying wasn't exactly a "falsity" - but I don't discourage people from learning it.

If PHP is your favourite language though, then I find you weird. That's kind of like being the person who's favourite vegetable is brussel sprouts. Just my opinion though. Don't take it to heart.

[Haxalot]

If PHP is your favourite language though, then I find you weird. That's kind of like being the person who's favourite vegetable is brussel sprouts. Just my opinion though. Don't take it to heart.

Maybe I am a little weird :) I'm just so much more fluent in PHP than in other languages I use, which makes building PHP-based applications such an easy thing to do. This, to me, makes it an enjoyable experience because I don't face the same difficulties I do with other languages, like debugging issues, knowledge limitations on language features or tools, etc.

And don't worry, I don't like brussel sprouts...

[Ezchan]

If you plan to join a startup or new company after school ruby is more widely used, but php is also very prominent.

[Crypto™]

High demand, yes. Hate your work, what? I'm familiar with a number of languages, and PHP is by far my most favourite. This point simply comes down to personal preference, so please don't spread falsities like this around.

As an ex-PHP user, I wish I had never learned it, not because it was bad per sé, but because I learned practices that most developers would probably laugh at me for. I throw this article around a lot, but PHP: A Fractal of Bad Design is well worth a read regardless of your stance on PHP. Same with PHP Sadnesss. Sure, it might be a language you like personally, but it's syntactically, it's terrible. Laravel is one of the few things that makes it bearable for me.

I'll sum this up for you.

If you want to enjoy your work, and push code quickly, learn Ruby.
If you want to hate your work, but have more job availability by being in high demand, learn PHP.
If you want to enjoy your work, be in high demand, be on the bleeding edge and have fun while learning, learn Node.js
If you want to be an amazing programmer, learn all three.

Of the frameworks that companies tend to use nowadays in all systems, based on experience I've had working as a professional:

PHP - Laravel
Ruby - Ruby on Rails, Sinatra
Node.js - Express, Hapi, Restify, Sails.js

There's also a lot of traction in regards to Meteor, and while "node-like" it isn't exactly Node.

On the frontend, there's lots of demand for people who know Backbone.js, AngularJS and Ember.js - however, Facebook's React.js is garnering incredible amounts of interest at an incredibly fast pace.

This is so true. I'm a huge fan of Node.js myself, and haven't used anything else for a while, though Ruby has been on my list to learn for a while. You really should experience all three, but if you go into PHP, know that you will learn bad practices. (Practices that I'm still trying to unlearn)

[Tasemu]

I have to agree with Dec on pretty much every point he has made. I used to like php a lot too before I found the other languages. Now I never look back.