Who can become a mentor (PHP)?

Question

css

Learned HTML/CSS in general.
Now actively I study PHP. I downloaded several courses (specialist, Linda, something else).
I downloaded several books:
1) Matt Zandstra - PHP objects, patterns and programming techniques. 4th Edition
2) PHP- Programming Recipes, -David Sklyar, Adam Trachtenberg
and a few more
In the future I plan to study the YII framework - I downloaded two books (one Yii-collection of recipes from Makarov)
In general, I went to several layout interviews so far without success. The last thing was, I went to the position of junior-php (with their training). I did the test task, but at the next stage I failed the live interview (I was a lot nervous). In general, I am looking for a mentor who can suggest something (what is better to pay attention to, will give test tasks, perhaps give advice on freelancing, or where to start). Yes, I read how it is best to work as a freelancer (small orders for nothing, for reviews, etc.). But so far I have not been closely involved in this, I think it makes no sense until I have studied php to the end to try it there. Something like this :)

Answer 1

Google is your mentor.
And also experience, countless lines of code written for the best understanding of how and what works, diligence.
Books are not enough to download, they need to be studied and understood.
Matt Zandstra will be difficult for a rookie. I would read it in parallel with the study of the framework in order to understand the basic concepts.
phptherightway be sure to read.
And more practice. As much as possible.
Dig various CMS, look at their design, notice interesting things, try to find bad solutions and figure out how to improve them.

Answer 2

You are on the right track.
Yes, you can use Google, books and everything that comes to hand. The question is how much time you spend on it.
I can help. Need stuff, code you're working on.

Answer 3

And what happened at the second stage of the interview, if not a secret?
I can tell you from my own experience that you continue to study, you are doing everything right. Write a blog on the framework, then an online store, use Ajax, calendars, widgets, do what you don't want, baskets, profiles, users, you will need it one way or another. You may not be able to solve problems gracefully right away, but at least you will understand the essence of what is happening in each module. A couple of projects just as a module developer and everything will be in order.
The benefit of guides on the topic of Yii, Symfony. Laravel for writing blogs, and the internet is full of shops. After frameworks, I recommend finding a course on writing in pure Php. The framework certainly simplifies development, but it should not be a panacea. A framework is useful if you know the language well, if you don't. It terribly binds and you don't know how to solve simple problems and the possibilities of the language itself. Because as soon as a non-standard task comes across, which cannot be googled on the Internet, a person is immediately lost.

Answer 4

Hello. Let's first organize your skills and existing experience into a portfolio. Maybe it's not all that bad.
webmentor.pro/portfolio/#free

Answer 5

Good day!
We need a flow in the project, so it will be easier to study something.