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General Discussion

Posted by John Weland
John Weland
42,478 Points

PHP or C# which is the better career choice.

I recently started (4 months ago) with a PHP shop as a front-end developer in a learning position where I am learning PHP on the job. I took an interview last week with another company to get the recruiter to stop calling me. The position I interviewed for is a front-end developer in a C# ASP.NET MVC shop. It too is a learning position, they know that I know just a little bit but expect me to learn as I go with this position.

The pay for the C# job is a fair bit more than I make now but the benefits are not as awesome. (not bad but not as awesome).

The recruiter says as a career path the C# is going to look better on a resume and open more doors than PHP will. But he's going to say that... he's recruiting for that position.

3 Answers

kameron mcgowan
kameron mcgowan
1,717 Points
kameron mcgowan
kameron mcgowan
1,717 Points

that is true i wouldn't go with C# because a good job has to have goo benefits or you will hate it. I would pick the job that looks better on a resume cause you gotta make your way up the ladder.

Nejc Vukovic
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Nejc Vukovic
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 51,574 Points
Nejc Vukovic
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Nejc Vukovic
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 51,574 Points

Hi John.

Well this is quite a hard decision and a easy one in a matter of speaking.

It all comes up to the point where you find yourself more comfy.

Then - is Windows your thing or not? C# means a lot of Windows. And I hate IIS :) PHP is flexible.

IMO: stick with PHP - it has more to offer I think forget the paycheck and the benefits for now.

You have a few months behind you in PHP and starting with C# would mean you are at the start again.

I was working in a company and the sold a product written in C#. A nightmare :)

Truly up to you.

Wish you luck.

Happy Coding!!!

John Weland
John Weland
42,478 Points
John Weland
John Weland
42,478 Points

Thanks for the head up guys.

After talking with my wife over lunch. I think I am going to stay where I am. The paycheck isn't as nice but the benefits are better. Plus the C# job is with DENCOM (military) while I enjoyed working with them in the passed taking the C# job would mean going back to contract work. Which means ever September I site on the edge wondering if we are getting renewed or not.

I would love to learn more C# but I like the job I'm in, I like the people I work with. My only concern was when the recruiter said that C# was going to open more doors for me. It made me wonder if PHP was a dead-end career path. (Build websites for a number of years and then crawl off in a corner and die) I know C# has uses in software development outside of the scope of the web.

At any rate, I think I am staying where I am for now.