subject: Best Tips for a Career in Drupal from Drupal Experts [print this page] Best Tips for a Career in Drupal from Drupal Experts
Drupal CMS has become fairly popular, with the official website of the White House adopting Drupal for content management. The marketability of Drupal experts has gained much prominence, and a career in Drupal has become an attractive option, due to its user friendly features and ease of learning.
To begin with, Drupal is an open source CMS, designed and released in 2001. Like the other popular CMS WordPress, Drupal too uses ASP and MYSQL for all its frameworks. It is an open source content management system with a very sturdy and robust software framework, with lots of attractive features.
Drupal is highly extensible and the best choice CMS for large websites. There is a well connected community of Drupal experts that make module contributions on a regular basis. In fact, your marketability as a web developer would get a huge boost if you are a Drupal expert.
You cannot master Drupal overnight; however, you can learn it fast, if you do it right. Here are some tips to help you start learning Drupal, by devoting an hour or so every day:
Install Drupal and get acquainted
Click around and start experimenting freely
Buy a beginner's handbook or go for paid training
Go through the issue queues by being a farmer or a pirate, and build community recognition
Progress to Drupal module development book or the Professional Drupal Development Book
Keep visiting the API reference site
Master programming and coding
Keep yourself updated with the latest applications
Start attending the local meet-ups (if there are) of Drupal enthusiasts
Start mingling and socializing (with other Drupal experts) and learn from various IRC channels
Reach out to other Drupal community members for mutual help and guidance
As you learn, you need to start thinking about the different types of websites you wish to build. Start posing questions, identify problems and solve them, as it keeps you in focus. I'll turn out to be a huge gainer in the future too, when you solve real-time problems for your clients.
Once you become a Drupal expert, you can start looking for Drupal job openings in the various job portals. Members in the Drupal community can refer you and keep you posted, if there are any Drupal job openings. The Drupal community is a huge asset and scoring a job would be literally, a cakewalk. With the huge demand for Drupal experts and coders today (and in the foreseeable future), a career in Drupal looks bright.
