Rookie here in need of help.

Is it possible to become a backend dev within 4 months?

I have been learning frontend on and off for a couple of years because I hate my job as a salesman. But I always imagined myself more as backend developer.

What are you expectations of being a 'backend dev'? Do you have actual experience with frontend programming in something like javascript or typescript? Or just html/css?

I was "that course guy" for so long. Completed a lot of JS courses but no real projects.

I'm learning PHP right now.

Thinking I had to "become a dev" before I could become a dev was one of my biggest mistakes in my career. You start by doing.

When we need more manpower at work the biggest deciding factor is whether they have a "What do you need, I'll figure it out" attitude. Whether you know the language or backend-specific practices (whatever that even means) is icing and not a prerequisite.

@ltlian what would you suggest someone like me should do?

Depends on your lifestyle. But I don't doubt you can. At work we had to crosstrain the CMS admin(which was basically just our webmaster) to start coding in PHP for our backends since the web tech department is underpowered. The dude already had programming knowledge in Java(he actually did have academic training) and with a good amount of resources and tutorials as well as help from the rest of the team we made sure he was work ready. No, he won't take in any overly large projects any time soon, but the dude is more than ready for basic work.

My point is, it is very doable. What resources are you using to learn php? I can provide some if you would like.

Short answer, probably not, but it's doable.

Long answer:
Dive deep into backend m and build something, courses should only be used to get you started, they never get you to a point you can build something on your own, that's up to you.

What have you learnt already for PhP?

Do you know the PSR's?
Have you used PHPUnit?
Are you familiar with OOP and MVC?

@AleCx04 I'm doing a course on Udemy right now. By Edwin Diaz. Building a CMS with PHP and mySQL.

@WeAreVenom Are there any backend projects at your work? I'm sure they could use help, and it's completely reasonable for an employee to express that they want to have a go at something else.

I would just flat out bring it up with my superior. They might say it's hard to fit someone in at the moment - it's always the case that we need more people but on the same token there's no time for the onboarding process. That's where it comes down to your specific situation. Your employer should make an effort to keep you happy, but sometimes there's legitimately no time to take in new people. It Depends (tm)

@C0D4 What should I build? And what should I absolutely master to be able to be entry level ready?

@norman70688 I have no clue what you are trying to say. I mentioned that he had programming knowledge through Java. My only point was that the dude didn't have to be taught how to do loops or what the variable is. If OP has JS knowledge from building simple frontends then he can probably not be too lost when seeing $blabla = blabla.

@WeAreVenom I audited courses for the web tech team. One of them was precisely the PHP class by Edwin Diaz. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but once you finish it(or even halfway through it) it will give some solid footwork. My honest recommendation would be to use Larry Ullman books as reference material as well, and if you are to take a php course in Udemy then go for Dave Hollingworth and what he has to offer. He did one as a partnership with Tim Buchalka called PHP for Beginners, sounds simple(because it is) but it lays down some very solid ground for medium to larger size php apps

@ltlian They won't listen. They're stuck in 2010.

@norman70688 my bad. But great advice! Doing a course right now on building a CMS.

@WeAreVenom

I'm glad I favourited this last time I had to find it

https://devrant.com/rants/1534212/...

As for what to build?

A CMS is a hell of a project to start with - my first ever project was a full fledge forum, a lot of headache and alcohol for me through that, but I would take the basics from it though, so not entirely bad.

As a junior, I would expect you to be able to work with classes, public/private functions and constructors, not necessarily namespaces and when to use them.

Know how to do basic CRUD with a database and be familiar user sessions.

Outside of that, you would learn a lot on the job.

Oh and git is always a bonus.

@AleCx04 Appreciate the resources. I'm halfway with Edwin's course. So I am on the right track?

@norman70688 did I miss something?

@norman70688 😂I was confused for a minute there.

As for java to php, that's not so bad, it's the mind set change to go from php to java that hurt 🤕

@norman70688 you are making a point regarding the merit of the language's technical level, I was not doing that....the reason why it was important to mention it is to give OP a way to gauge himself based on his situation, which is presumably already knowing JS. If I said that we just trained this dude out of nowhere and had him coding small php backends well that is something. But if I mention that he had already experience in a language then that is different. Take the language away then, just sum it up to "the dude already knew coding".

@C0D4 And then back again to realize how many features php is missing :(

@norman70688 lmao whatever dude