Every developer (PHP or not) out there has sat back in their favorite chair and thought about what else is out there. Well, Cal Evans is no different and he shares a tool he was linked to (by Terry Chay) that could help you find that "what's next" in your career.

I love Nashville, TN. Well, ok, I really like it. It's a great town but I'm getting a bit restless. The problem I face is that I never know what the environment for programmers will be in a given city before moving there. So when Terry Chay briefly mentioned indeed.com's salary search tool, it sparked my interest. If I, a PHP programmer, wanted to move to another city in the US, how would I fare salary wise? Since I don't want to list every city in the US, I've selected CNN/Money's Best Places to Live in America as my list of cities to compare.

Looking specifically for PHP-related jobs, he made the query, found the cities, ranked them and listed the average salary for the area. He also grabbed the cost of living for each location based on the closest large city and matched them up.

The result?

So it's agreed then, we'll all meet in Columbia, MD.

Check out the post and the lovely graph Cal has put together for more cities and their stats.