Are you wondering why become a Drupal developer? Drupal is the third most popular CMS in the world. It helps create amazing websites, filled with powerful features and offers second-to-none security levels. We know that Drupal is the perfect solution for both businesses (of all sizes) and consumer-facing websites. In fact, you might be surprised to find that some of the world's largest websites of running on Drupal. Even Beyonce’s site is a Drupal one.
So with all the great Drupal benefits, you might naturally think Drupal developer roles are high in demand. And you be right about that. If you're a Drupal developer, it would be easy for you to find a job within a day. It's not hours.
So if you're thinking about joining the incredible open source community that is Drupal, now is one of the best times to do so. To help you make that decision, we've put together a list of the reasons why it’s such a good time for you to consider becoming a Drupal developer.
First thing’s first: The prerequisites to becoming a Drupal developer
One of the reasons that Drupal agencies thrive is because Drupal is not the easiest CMS to get your head around. Compared to WordPress, Drupal is more complex and requires in-depth web development knowledge to begin a build. You'll need some level of coding to develop a site that performs seamlessly. The bare essential tools to develop a Drupal 7 site that you’ll need to know are PHP, CSS and JavaScript.
When Drupal 8 was launched this also added the requirement of some understanding of core PHP and object-orientated programming. Plus the addition of SQL to some extent will help you to work on a website database.
Essentially the first tip is that you need to know a small amount of a lot of programming languages.
Choose your niche
Whilst we did say Drupal is complex to develop it actually has a very easy setup process; all you need to do is download the core and you're good to go. The complicated part comes when you start adding sophisticated modules which you can download to sit alongside core which creates an effective and highly personalised website for your business.
Thanks to the community (which will get to) every module and, in fact, every aspect of development are very well detailed and documentation is always available. Thanks to this, you can decide which part of Drupal you want to become an expert in. You could be a general well-rounded coder with knowledge of a lot of modules or you can really dig deep and figure out everything there is to know about a few modules. Another avenue to consider is that you could focus on Drupal design, too.
The point is that understanding Drupal and its functions are essential but you should focus on your talents too, which are equally as important.
Community is everything
There is a saying that you “come for the coding but stay for the community”. The Drupal community is incredibly inclusive and because of that, it is very diverse; welcoming all people. Drupal.org is bursting with content that helps junior developers to build websites from scratch. What's more, there's always somebody around to answer questions that you might have, or someone willing to contribute to an issue.
There is a calendar similarly bursting with global events throughout the year. These help to spread expertise and knowledge. And that’s in terms of code and non-code contributions (the latter being things like marketing). What's abundantly clear about Drupal in particular is the focus on people. Open source is more than a technological term, it’s a value. As such, people who become Drupal developers find it so easy to fall in love with the CMS and everything it offers.
You can head to the Drupal chat channel within IRC which is dedicated to providing developers with help for any problem they might have. Another place that's great for useful content is Planet Drupal, which helps you to access some top-notch resources not just for development but those non-code elements like marketing.
DrupalCon
DrupalCon is the Glastonbury for the Drupal community. It happens once a year and never in the same country twice. It's a time for developers to get together, improve their skills and talk about new and exciting movements within the CMS. At DrupalCon, you can learn from experts, including Dries himself. It’s a wonderful place to network. If you’re considering becoming a Drupal developer, it’s advisable to come to a DrupalCon to check it out for yourself. They’re also a lot of fun alongside being a great place to learn.
There are plenty of well-paid jobs
There’s an abundance of jobs within the Drupal world, thanks to how many niche areas you could choose to become an expert in. Around the world, there is a cry for more Drupal developers. There are more job opportunities than there are coders, largely thanks to the release of Drupal 9. So if you’re thinking of becoming a Drupal developer, you’ll be paid well and will have the pick of opportunities to take up.
Final thoughts
We hope that highlights some of the great reasons to join the open-source world! We’ve been working with Drupal for over a decade and we’ve seen it grow and mature.