Doug Brown has posted a new review of a book by Michael Kimsal, the "PHP Job Hunter's Handbook" (from php|architect publishing).

Michael Kimsal's new book, PHP Job Hunter's Handbook. I pre-ordered this book a few months ago, and read the PDF version all the way through before I received my hard copy. [...] It wouldn't be extreme to go as far as saying that the book covers too much territory, but for it only being 106 pages, it's a fair conclusion.

Doug lists some of these topics (like how to find a full-time job, contracting, freelancing and some advice from other developers/those on the hiring side). He looks at what it does have and doesn't have as well as his recommendation on if you should buy it or not.

I recently caught up with Michael Kimsal, author of the newly-released PHP Job Hunter's Handbook from php|architect that can be ordered now in both PDF and print versions. I wanted to get inside his head and find out all about the reasons behind the book, his experience in writing it and any tips he had to share, so I had him answer a few questions. Read on for the interview...

Congratulations to Michael Kimsal on his book, "the "PHP Job Hunter's Handbook", being published:

I started my "PHP Job Hunter's Handbook" many moons ago, and had interest from PHP Architect last summer/fall about publishing it. After some false starts in finishing it, we wrapped it up several weeks ago, and happily it's 'out there'. Whew!

The book provides helpful hints on finding that dream PHP job (whether it be contract or full-time) with tips on freelancing, "technologies you should know", interviewing tips and some advice from the employers and other PHP developers.

Here's the official announcement from MTA publishing as well as a reminder from Ivo Jansch that the book is currently available for pre-order.

Tobias Schlitt has posted an official announcement of the release of his and Kore Nordmann's latest collaboration - the eZ Components book!

More than 4 month of intensive planning, writing, coding, correcting, drawing, rephrasing, more writing,... to keep it short: A huge lot of work and much more even than we expected, after so many people told us, that writing a book would be a huge lot of work.

The official title is "The eZ Components Developers Handbook" and covers topics like the basics of the components and additional functionality like the Template, Graph, DatabaseSchema, SignalSlot components as well. Tobias goes on to talk about how the book is most useful and the goal of the book - to bring the world of eZ Components to the masses in an easy and accessible way.