A prospective employer is asking me what level PHP programmer I am. Junior, Middle Level, or Senior. I have eight years of PHP programmer under me free lancing, but none in a pure business environment. I would consider my self middle level, but is there I can test myself to see what I really am? I want to be honest with the employer.
8 years is a lot, if you want to be safe then say intermediate, only you can really tell how much you know though.
8 year of programming is too much.. (if you really learned new things and didnt make Hello World again n again)
I would imagine after eight years of PHP programming you would be somewhere between Middle Level and Senior. If you have a portfolio of projects to show of varying complexities it would help back you up better than just using a tag like Middle Level.
Considering I have a completely custom CMS as one of my projects in my portfolio, I believe it should help. I will toss them middle level and see what they say. Wish me luck every one!
If you have a portfolio that you can show your potential employer, then they can judge you from what you've actually made
I sent them that, but they are asking any way. I suppose I could link it here too! http://www.nonamestudios.com/portfolio.php About going from freelance to full time office job, I am only making a small amount of money on the side to my current office job. Programming is my passion and my current office job is not.
erm. usually by the level they imply or gather other things, such as: are you a procedural or OOP coder. do you code via MVC or mixed. do you code straight or test-driven-development. do you code alone are are you familiar with / using cvs / git in a collaborative fashion... do you use zend or any other frameworks... etc etc. all sorts of curve balls if you can do all of these, i'd say you are all-go for "senior", yeah
I agree with dimitar, probably throw in unit testing as well. You shouldn't really have to ask... you should have a pretty good idea of what your capable of. I've been doing php for 2 years and I would say I was senior level.
I do procedural, object oriented, and I use "MVC" where needed. I will code straight or test depending what I have available. I use and build my own frameworks. I also have been coding C/C++ for much longer. I suppose I am just too modest.
My friend, you seem to be more than experienced for the "senior" title, don't lower your price! And if that particular employer can't appraise your skills high enough, there are so many other who would certainly do it.
I have been coding for 4 years. Currently coding in OOP. I consider myself intermediate now, after a year or two definitely a senior. Peace,