After reading the above book which is coauthor by @tomB and @kevinyank , have used the framework created in the book to create a full pledge forum and a complete e-commerce site. With the experience I now have in the OOP world, do you think I can now compete in freelancing sites like fiverr.com, upwork.com and especially toptal.com. Do you think I have a chance at toptal.com.
P.s. I have taken the php and html5 exam, and in php, I got 3.2/5and in html5, I got 4.4/5 and am in top 20%
I don’t know any of those sites, but it’s very difficult for anyone else to judge what level of knowledge you might have. I’m learning PHP, and what I tend to do is read through posts on here when people ask questions, and see if I can see what the solution might be. Doing that gives you an insight into a much broader range of programming techniques and requirements, and may bring you into contact with far more than reading a book and doing a couple of exams. Very often when the more experienced posters add a response, it opens up a whole new train of thought that I hadn’t considered.
Another thing that I can’t tell from your description of your experience is how the book and those exams have helped with your problem-solving ability, which is sometimes quite different to any kind of programming knowledge. That would be something that would add values to your services, I would think.
One thing’s pretty sure though - the more you do, the more experience you’ll get and the more useful that will make you to potential employers. Obviously that’s not guaranteed - some people seem to do things over and over again without any signs of improving at them. But usually experience brings improvement.
Comparing fiver and upwork to Toptal is like comparing an apple to an orange. Both upwork and fiver allow basically anyone to bid on jobs regardless of experience/ability. On the other hand being accepted on Toptal entails resume review, interview, and several test screens. The Toptal tests focus on intermediate to advanced problem solving capabilities in software engineering, not on specific frameworks or even languages. In my opinion knowledge of php and frameworks would not be nearly enough to pass the first test round if you could even get that far in the first place. Having been exposed to the Toptal process I don’t think 75% of contactors could pass their screening process. Especially not most of the types you find on the open ended “freelance” websites like fiver or upwork.
I highly recommend you browse all the posts on this site regarding PHP and see if you could have solved these problems. That’ll give you a good idea of your strengths and weaknesses.
Offhand, though, reading a book to learn something is not the same thing as developing a score of sites yourself and building up experience.
Oh thanks for the advice
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