Lamp

[VectraMan]

I got some cake on my c.v. So I had to throw it away and print out another copy.

IGMC.

[Scary]

If you did the same thing with Windows or commercial UNIX, MS SQL Server or Oracle and ASP.NET or whatever the Java equivalent is you could probably charge more.

[Cliphead]

Yes, is more usual for the P to represent PHP.

To the OP. Zend is a good idea. Also try getting into some of the other frameworks, Symfony, Cake etc. These go down well on CVs and a few good contracts about for them. Other good ones to get under the belt (and on the CV) are JQuery and MooTools to cover the JavaScript frameworks. On top of this you could also take a peek at Drupal, fair bit of demand and not many players from what I can see. Happy learning!

WHS

Take a look at Django as well. Hard to get Django devs and there seems to be plenty of work out there.

[oversteer]

jQuery is on there, plus YUI/ExtJS.

I'm planning on getting at least one framework learnt, but it seems to be split quite evenly between Zend, Symfony, Cake.. I'll probably end up learning one but still be applying for roles using the others!

Good idea about Drupal, I've used Joomla quite extensively, so presume there is some overlap.

and as for Windows/.net etc .. it's hard to stomach starting at the bottom again, even though I could probably learn the languages well..

[administrator]

WHS

Take a look at Django as well. Hard to get Django devs and there seems to be plenty of work out there.

Forgive me if mistaken but Django is Python isn't it? Well up for trying to get head around that when I get the time too, looks like a good language.

[oversteer]

Also what about some sort of usability training, as I do quite a lot of UI creation. I'll never be a designer, but something which could be applicable to someone at my level.

eg. webcredible do 1, 2 day courses which look interesting.

[NickFitz]

Forgive me if mistaken but Django is Python isn't it? Well up for trying to get head around that when I get the time too, looks like a good language.

Django is very good, and constantly improving. One of the best things about it is the active community surrounding both development of the framework itself (e.g. django-developers list) and development using the framework (e.g. django-users list). The founders of the project realise the importance of good documentation, which also helps, although admittedly the rapid pace of development of the framework can mean that the codebase and the docs get out of sync from time to time on the development branch. Still, there's almost always up-to-date information in the Django Project wiki until somebody gets round to updating the docs; and if you're using a stable build (1.1 at time of writing) the docs are fine.

In addition to the development-focused resources there are also sites like Django People and Django Gigs which complement each other nicely.

[suityou01]

Yes, is more usual for the P to represent PHP.

To the OP. Zend is a good idea. Also try getting into some of the other frameworks, Symfony, Cake etc. These go down well on CVs and a few good contracts about for them. Other good ones to get under the belt (and on the CV) are JQuery and MooTools to cover the JavaScript frameworks. On top of this you could also take a peek at Drupal, fair bit of demand and not many players from what I can see. Happy learning!

Drupal. Aaaah yes. Now there's a CMS worth learning. Top advice.

[The_Equalizer]

Yes, is more usual for the P to represent PHP.

To the OP. Zend is a good idea. Also try getting into some of the other frameworks, Symfony, Cake etc. These go down well on CVs and a few good contracts about for them. Other good ones to get under the belt (and on the CV) are JQuery and MooTools to cover the JavaScript frameworks. On top of this you could also take a peek at Drupal, fair bit of demand and not many players from what I can see. Happy learning!

Have to agree on all of this. Any kind of LAMP stuff seems a shade old hat without front-end stuff like the javascript libraries and framesworks mentioned above. I've been doing a bit of Zend with the current client along with Glow (BBC's javascript library).

[d000hg]

Do you think there might be a chance that some agents might not know that the acronym refers to those individual components?

I never knew, and I'm a developer. Although I don't work with PHP or Linux and never have, which might explain it.