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How To Hire a PHP Developer

Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this PHP Developer hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.

PHP Developer Recruitment Guide

What does a PHP Developer do?

A PHP Developer needs to be highly technically trained in designing, developing and testing various PHP scripts. This will be combined with their communication skills to enable them to effectively solve problems and work as a part of a team.

Day to day tasks of a PHP Developer

Skills assessment

PHP Developer definition

PHP Developers use their knowledge of the programming language known as PHP to create back-end code which assists a website perform any type of functionality for the end-user. One common use of PHP is to facilitate a website that is processing a request to enter the data into a database.

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HIRING PROCESS

PHP Developer Hiring Process

Step 1: Understand the role
Step 2: Source Applicants
Step 3: Skills Assessment
Step 4: Interview
Step 5: Hire

Build the Ideal Candidate Profile​

To find the best person for the role, you need to understand what the role involves. You can complete this with the hiring manager to define the role, its contribution, and the skills needed.

Write A Job Description Based On Skills

Once you understand the requirements for the role, you’ll need to understand the skills for success. You can then write an effective job description to promote your role.

Selecting The Ideal Candidate

See which applicants have the right skills for the role. Send all your applicants a Vervoe skills assessment from the expert library, or customize one for your organization.

Interview Top Performers

Your skills assessment results will identify top performers. Focus your time on interviewing those that have met or exceeded your requirements. Assessment results will also help guide which skill areas to focus on in the interview.

Making An Offer

Once you assess your candidates against these skills, you’re ready to offer the top performer(s). You should base your offer on the value that the candidate would bring to your team and your business as a whole. It is also important to ensure your compensation and benefits packages are competitive in the industry and help you attract and retain the top talent.
Build the ideal candidate profile

Skills needed for a PHP Developer

A PHP Developer will not only need to be proficient in PHP but also other languages like JavaScript, HTML, SQL and CSS. Furthermore, they will also need to know OOP and SOLID principles as this ensures great software design. As for soft skills, communication is key as they will be interacting with different stakeholders on a regular basis.

Pro Tip

For mid-level roles, you should focus on not only a candidate’s experience with PHP but the whole web development sphere as a whole. It would be beneficial if they know different web languages so they have a deeper understanding of different parts that they’re interacting with.

WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS

How to write a PHP Developer job description

Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your PHP Developer job description:

Job Title: What position are you hiring for?

Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?

Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization

Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully

Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer

Pro Tip

In building your candidate profile, remember you’ve already identified what skills are needed to succeed in the role. Here’s where to list your “must-have” skills and maybe a couple of “nice-to-have” skills. For example, PHP Developer’s should have experience using the framework Laravel.

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SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Sample skill tests for a PHP Developer

Create a free account today to access the full assessment and more from our library

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Question 1

Project Management

Question Type: Video

Briefly describe an interesting project you have worked on. The project can be professional or as a hobby. What role did you play? What was the most rewarding aspect of working on this project?

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Question 2

PHP

Question Type: Code

If you were given an array which is provided below, how would you reverse alphabetically sort this, remove the final element and print it to console?

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Question 3

Writing Script

Question Type: Multiple Choice

If you wanted to print an array in reverse order, which function would you use? Some example code is below.

INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS

How to interview a PHP Developer

Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.

Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.

Making An Offer

How much does it cost to hire a PHP Developer?

PHP Developers in the USA can expect salaries in the median neighbourhood of $90,103 as reported by Indeed.com and $97,500 according to Talent.com. Ninety percent of PHP Developers can expect to earn up to $95,000 and the lowest ten percent are paid up to $43,000 according to Payscale.com.

PHP Developer Salary United States

PHP Developers in the United States have a reported yearly wage of $64,618 USD. There are a handful of factors which need to be taken into consideration when this number is offered to candidates, for example, the location of the organisation and breadth of knowledge around PHP such as knowledge around PHP frameworks.

PHP Developer Salary United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has a median salary of £42,523 for PHP Developers. This figure will change based on many different elements when a salary is made for employees, for instance, the experience + seniority of an individual and the location of an organisation.

PHP Developer Salary Australia

In Australia a PHP Developer can be expected to receive a yearly salary of approximately $100,000 AUD. This figure will be impacted by a number of factors such as, the industry and location of the organisation.