On the PHPClasses.org blog, there's an article from Manuel Lemos that gives ten tips trying to help you get a better PHP job (they're all the way at the bottom, just scroll down).

The list of tips include things like:

• Qualify yourself to stand out from the crowd
• Get more exposure to yourself in the PHP community
• Do well on job interviews
• Evolve in your career making your employer profit more

Check out the post for more great tips.

A little bit back Akash Mehta posted a list of seven sites he thought could make you a better PHP programmer for reading and keeping track of:

Developing in PHP isn't a textbook science. There's skill to it, and that skill comes from experience. Now, you could try your hand at every single PHP development challenge out there, or you could learn from the experiences of others, widely published on the web in blogs and developer portals.

Included in the list are sites like php|architect's C7Y site, Planet PHP and the the Zend Developer Zone (oh yeah, PHPDeveloper.org made the list too!)

Following up on this article from Akash Mehta, Bryan has posted five more suggestions he has to help make you a better PHP developer.

I thought all of Akash's suggestions were good but a little broad and seemed to involve a lot of reading. And while any budding developer will jump at the chance to expand their burgeoning technical library, I thought there were a couple of items we could add to his list.

The recommendations that made his list are

• Start a project that other people (developers and end users) will use.
• Learn another language.
• Teach someone PHP.
• Ask for suggestions not solutions.
• Use what you read.

I'm particularly a fan of the third one (teaching) - not only does it spread PHP out even more through the masses, but it can really test you on your knowledge (some of those "how do I.." questions can get a bit complex, even from beginners).

PHP Magazine has posted the results from one of their previous polls today - this time asking readers what they think the largest misconception surrounding PHP is.

The International PHP Magazine conducted a poll over the week, asking for your opinion on 'The misconceptions surrounding PHP'. The options provided were:

• Java/ASP/Ruby/Python/Perl/C is better, and faster than PHP
• PHP does not scale well
• PHP has to write/read everything from a database
• PHP does not support shared memory
• PHP is not a compiled language
• PHP can't run for days

The results from the poll showed unanimously that the impression that Java/ASP/Ruby/Python/Perl/C are better and faster than PHP topped the charts. Coming in close are two options - that PHP doesn't scale well and that PHP isn't a compiled language (surprising).

Check out their latest poll for the week asking what the most common security mistake is.