Paul Jones' Blog: Interview Tip: Avoid Mentioning PHP Frameworks

Paul Jones has offered a tip he thinks will help you in future interviews for a software development position - don't mention frameworks.

If the job description does not mention "Framework X," you should probably avoid answering that you use "Framework X" to solve the problem presented to you by the interviewer. If I ask you to perform a simple task, such as parsing a string in a well-known format, saying "Framework X does that for me" is likely to be seen as a negative. You should be able to do the simple things in PHP itself (e.g. parsing strings).

He points out that, as someone currently in the interview process, he is frustrated by the fact that some developers rely so heavily on the functionality that frameworks give them that they don't know how to do some of the most basic tasks outside of them.

Saying that you use a feature of "Framework X" for simple things is a negative. It sounds like you're dependent on that framework for basic tasks. That means we (the employers) will need to train you how to do it without that framework, and that's a hassle for us.