From my earlier post on shortage of good PHP programmers…

Going with the herd :
And the herd generally opts for Microsoft Technologies. If i see a lot of my friends opting for .NET as a career choice then it will be my natural tendency to go with .NET. Students need to overcome this tendency and move away from herd.

I see this as one of the main reasons why there is a lack of talented PHP Programmers in Nagpur (India). No one is willing to take his/her own decision and choose a programming language other than what their friends are learning. Everyone wants to follow what others are doing. Most of the students don’t even know what a particular programming language does but they join a course to learn it just because their friends are doing that course. They treat programming as fashion and always follow the trend. Guys, please understand that clothes and career are two different things. Be brave enough to take your own decisions.

When I was in college the trend was to go for either VC++ or Java. I did some research and found that C is a good choice to start with. I believe that C lays the foundation of programming syntax and logic. C is like God Father of all languages. I started learning C and got adept at the basics of general programming syntax and logic. I suggest everyone to get acquainted with C before starting their programming careers.

I got a job at SANIsoft, in February 2004, as a PHP Trainee. At the time of joining, I didn’t even knew how to write “echo” in PHP. I then started learning PHP and was trained by Dr.Tarique Sani. Initially I was too tempted to look for a new job and work in technologies like VC++, Java or ASP because that was the trend then. But I thought lets give it a shot and move away from the herd (trend).

Gradually my interest in PHP grew and I started liking it. Back in 2004 very very few people have heard of PHP. When my friends asked me on what technology I am working on – they were shocked on hearing PHP. Almost all of them asked me “What is PHP?”. Some of them even laughed at me for breaking the trend and opting for a language which no one have heard about (at least in Nagpur). But I continued with PHP and today I am glad i stuck with it. The fact is that today I am satisfied with both my work and the money I get.

I believe that world is slowly moving towards web based solutions. Desktop solutions are being replaced by web (Ex: Office suite by Google Docs). And when it comes to web, PHP has many advantages over other server side scripting languages. So be courageous and try to choose a programming language other than M$ technologies.