Adam Culp has a great new post to his site sharing some of his thoughts and advice about advancing in a career in development for those that might feel a bit "stuck".

As the organizer of the SoFloPHP User Group I am often approached by entry to mid-level developers asking what they can do to advance in their career or become better developers. Of course I am nowhere near perfect but have been around long enough to get a few bumps and bruises along the way, so [this list] is what I usually share as some pointers.

Some of the things are PHP-specific, but a lot are just general good practices any developer should follow. His list includes things like:

• It's okay to stay up late once and a while, but get some sleep
• Track your time and get in the habit of knowing what you did with each hour
• Certifications will not actually carry much value on your resume, so I would not make them a main focus.
• Pick an IDE to use and learn it FULLY. I will not recommend one in this post, so explore and find one that fits how you want to work.
• Always strive to make yourself replaceable. If you are replaceable you are also promotable, and you can go on vacation pain free.

He also suggests learning a few other tools like git (and github), a good IDE and having a "pet" full-stack framework. Check out the full post for more great tips.