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I made my site from templates, I mean that webpages for the site I downloaded from Internet. I only did php and mysql on my site. I didn't write html and css pages by my own.Is that ok for php developer? Some people say that I won't get job as a php developer, because my pages are from templates. Is that true?

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The requirements obviously depend on the specific job. In some projects, there's a strict separation of backend programming (PHP, SQL etc.) and the frontend (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). In other cases, programmers are expected to do pretty much everything.

 

In general, you should at least have basic knowledge and be able to create a simple page from scratch. If you don't know anything about HTML, that can be a problem in job interviews.

The answer is always "it depends", but I would expect anyone with PHP experience to at least know the basics with HTML. They're usually tied pretty closely together, unless you have that strict separation that Jacques mentions.

 

I don't think you have to be a good graphic designer to be good at PHP. I'm certainly not. So the design aspects of CSS and JavaScript can certainly be secondary, in my opinion. If you want a modern asynchronous design, you're going to need to get into JavaScript, though. Things like JQuery and JQuery UI make those relatively easy to get into nowadays, though.

There are trends that come and go in the web development world.

 

There are also areas of expertise and niche specialities that can either make you more valuable in the marketplace or confine you.

 

The first keyword is "full stack"

 

When a job mentions full stack, they expect you to be a jack of all trades:  designer, UI developer, html, css, javascript, php, sql etc.

 

There is "backend" which seems more like the area you are interested in.  Specialization and experience is important here.  If you have experience with NGINX/PHP-FPM, PHP & MongoDB, that might get you a job where someone who has only ever used Apache/MySQL won't.  Many people who have done lots of "full stack" development have no idea how to handle scalability, because most of their sites are for small businesses who simply want a site to look a particular way, and have whatever functions they need, but have no expectation that they will receive substantial traffic, or ever be able to scale up/down etc.  There is a lot of overlap in this area with DevOps, and cloud service configurations.  Often, backend developers are expected to have a sysadmin skillset, because there may be more moving parts.  Backend developers are often expected to be database design architects and experts with SQL or whatever other persistence technologies are being employed.  There is also the current state of webdevelopment, which I"ll discuss next.

 

Current Web Development:

 

Focus on "Front end development" as it pertains to javascript frameworks like React, Vue, Angular, Ember. 

 

This has become the focus of many companies in revamping or improving their web presence, and in the process it fundamentally changes the roles in a development project.  With a JS framework UI, the typical solution is that the server side code needs to provide an API (typically restful) that the frontend uses to add/update/get/delete data.  So, the role of a "backend developer" requires that you understand how to provide a solid well designed api that is Restful.  Unless you are also creating the front end product, there is no longer any reason for you to need presentation skill.  You are instead expected to do everything with json, and to understand how to handle authentication in an api.  

 

At present, the demand for frontend developers is far greater than for fullstack or backend developers from what I've seen in my non-scientific analysis of the marketplace.  By definition a full stack developer could be fluent both in frontend javascript and in backend api development, but usually the people looking for fullstack are really just looking for one person to take care of everything, and aren't really interested in the solution, so long as it looks the way they want it to.

 

I think this is because people are naturally focused on how something looks, and not on how it might work on the backend, or how flexibly it was designed.  To them, server side development is just plumbing and they don't go down in the boiler room, nor are they likely to know the difference in how the plumbing was setup so long as water comes out of the faucet.    They will never know nor appreciate the fact that the current plumbing won't accommodate another faucet on the 2nd floor, until such time as they have the 2nd floor added and realize then that faucets don't work there.   That's one of the pitfalls of backend development, although I am sure frontend developers feel the same way when they have to add to code written by an inexperienced developer, only to find it was not done using best practices.

 

With marketplaces like Envato Themeforest, backend developers who aren't particularly artistic or up to date on the latest can steer clients towards the UI they prefer, and essentially do what you did and achieve professional state of the art UI.  Of course you do have to understand the fundamentals of html, css & js to wire everything together, or make tweaks, but it's a pretty commonplace approach to the issue of frontend design when you are primarily a backend developer.  So a backend developer can train him or herself into a viable full stack developer.

 

To be a frontend developer, you really need to be an expert javascript developer, or at least proficient and trained in the js framework you are using.  It's a bigger job, and typically comes with a higher level of expectation in regards to your html/css skills. 

Once again: Different jobs have different requirements. There is no law saying what is and what isn't “OK” for a web developer. Each company has its own idea of programming, and the trick is to find the one which matches your personal preferences.

 

Go out and apply for real jobs. Some companies won't hire you. Some jobs will be boring. You may even realize that professional programming isn't like you hoped it was. This is all perfectly normal, and it will tell you a lot more than an abstract discussion in an anonymous online forum.

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