Top 12 Drupal Developer Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's competitive tech job market, having a standout resume is crucial, especially for Drupal developers seeking to make an impact. Highlighting the top skills that showcase your proficiency and adaptability with Drupal can significantly enhance your chances of landing your desired role.

Drupal Developer Skills

1. Drupal 8/9
2. PHP
3. Symfony
4. Twig
5. JavaScript
6. CSS
7. HTML5
8. Git
9. MySQL
10. Composer
11. RESTful APIs
12. Drush

1. Drupal 8/9

Drupal 8/9 is an open-source content management system (CMS) platform, used for building and managing websites. It offers extensive API support, customizable and scalable architecture, facilitating the development of web applications and sites with complex structures and functionalities.

Why It's Important

For a Drupal Developer, Drupal 8/9 is important because it introduces modern Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) concepts, a more powerful Twig templating system for front-end themes, significant improvements in content modeling and site configuration management, and better API support for headless applications, enhancing development efficiency, flexibility, and scalability.

How to Improve Drupal 8/9 Skills

Improving your skills and projects in Drupal 8/9 involves a combination of understanding Drupal's core concepts, adopting best practices, and leveraging the community and tools available. Here’s a concise guide:

1. Understand Drupal Core: Dive deep into Drupal's core functionalities. The official Drupal documentation is the best place to start, offering comprehensive guides and tutorials.

2. Master Theming and Module Development: Enhance your site's appearance and functionality. Learn about theming in Drupal's Theming Guide and module development in Drupal's Module Development Guide.

3. Use Drupal Console and Drush: Automate tasks and manage your Drupal sites efficiently. Familiarize yourself with Drupal Console and Drush, the command line tools that speed up your development process.

4. Follow Best Practices and Coding Standards: Write maintainable and high-quality code. Refer to Drupal Coding Standards to understand the best practices.

5. Leverage the Community and Contributed Modules: Utilize the vast library of contributed modules and themes. Explore Drupal.org's Modules section and participate in Drupal community forums for support and knowledge sharing.

6. Stay Updated: Drupal is continuously evolving. Keep up with the latest updates, security releases, and news via the official Drupal blog.

7. Learn from Tutorials and Courses: Expand your knowledge through online courses and tutorials. Websites like Drupalize.Me offer specialized Drupal training.

Remember, practice and continuous learning are key to mastering Drupal 8/9. Engage with the community, contribute to open-source projects, and constantly challenge yourself with new projects.

How to Display Drupal 8/9 Skills on Your Resume

2. PHP

PHP is a server-side scripting language used for web development, and it is the core programming language for creating and managing content in Drupal websites.

Why It's Important

PHP is crucial for a Drupal Developer because Drupal is primarily written in PHP, making proficiency in PHP essential for developing, customizing, and maintaining Drupal websites and modules.

How to Improve PHP Skills

Improving PHP skills, especially for a Drupal Developer, involves understanding both PHP fundamentals and Drupal-specific practices. Here are concise steps with resources:

1. Master PHP Basics: Ensure you have a strong grasp of PHP syntax, OOP principles, and error handling. PHP: The Right Way is an excellent resource.

2. Utilize Drupal.org Resources: Drupal.org offers extensive documentation and community forums that cover PHP practices in the context of Drupal.

3. Follow Drupal Coding Standards: Adhere to Drupal's coding standards to write clean, maintainable code.

4. Leverage Composer: Use Composer for managing dependencies in your Drupal projects, ensuring efficient management of libraries and version control.

5. Debugging: Improve your debugging skills. Tools like Xdebug can be integrated with IDEs to streamline this process.

6. Learn Drupal's API: Familiarize yourself with Drupal's API, understanding functions and hooks specific to Drupal.

7. Contribute to Drupal Community: Engage with the Drupal community by contributing to modules, themes, or documentation. This guide helps you get started.

8. Stay Updated: PHP and Drupal are constantly evolving. Follow PHP.net and the Drupal Association to stay informed about updates and best practices.

By focusing on these areas and leveraging the provided resources, you can significantly improve your PHP skills as a Drupal developer.

How to Display PHP Skills on Your Resume

3. Symfony

Symfony is a PHP web application framework and set of reusable components/libraries. For a Drupal developer, it's crucial as Drupal 8 and later versions are built on top of Symfony, leveraging its structure, dependency injection, and modular components to enhance Drupal's flexibility, scalability, and development practices.

Why It's Important

For a Drupal developer, Symfony is crucial because Drupal is built upon the Symfony framework, offering a robust structure for development, enhancing code reusability, performance, and security. This integration allows for more efficient module development, better handling of HTTP requests, and access to a wide range of Symfony components, streamlining the development process and extending Drupal's functionality.

How to Improve Symfony Skills

Improving your Symfony skills as a Drupal developer can significantly enhance your web development capabilities. Here's a concise guide:

1. Understand Symfony Components: Dive into the Symfony Components that Drupal leverages, such as HttpFoundation, Routing, and EventDispatcher. Familiarize yourself with how these components work and how they are integrated within Drupal.

2. Master Dependency Injection: Learn about Dependency Injection in Symfony, a fundamental concept for managing class dependencies. Understanding this will help in creating more testable and modular code in Drupal.

3. Embrace the Console: Get comfortable with the Symfony Console component. It's pivotal for creating command-line commands in Symfony and is used within Drupal's Console tool for generating boilerplate code and interacting with Drupal installations.

4. Explore Symfony Flex: Although not directly used in Drupal, understanding Symfony Flex can provide insights into Symfony's approach to package management and application configuration.

5. Stay Updated: Symfony evolves rapidly. Follow the Symfony Blog and participate in Symfony and Drupal communities to stay informed about best practices, new features, and security updates.

6. Hands-on Practice: Create small projects or contribute to existing ones on platforms like GitHub. This practical experience is invaluable.

7. Use Symfony Documentation: The Symfony Documentation is a comprehensive resource that covers everything from basic concepts to advanced techniques. Use it as your primary reference material.

8. Learn from the Community: Engage with the Symfony and Drupal communities on platforms like Drupal.org and SymfonyCasts for tutorials and discussions.

By focusing on these areas, you'll enhance your Symfony skills, thereby improving your effectiveness as a Drupal developer.

How to Display Symfony Skills on Your Resume

4. Twig

Twig is a flexible, fast, and secure template engine for PHP, used as the default templating language in Drupal 8 and later versions, enabling developers to create dynamic content output with a cleaner, more readable syntax.

Why It's Important

Twig is important for a Drupal developer because it serves as the default templating engine in Drupal 8 and later versions, enabling cleaner and more secure theme development with easier-to-read syntax.

How to Improve Twig Skills

To improve your skills in Twig, especially as a Drupal developer, focus on the following key areas:

1. Twig Documentation: Start with the official Twig documentation. Understanding the basics and advanced features directly from the source ensures strong foundational knowledge.

2. Drupal's Twig Extensions: Dive into Drupal's specific Twig extensions to leverage Drupal's powerful theming capabilities effectively.

3. Templates Best Practices: Familiarize yourself with Twig best practices for Drupal. This helps in writing clean, maintainable, and efficient templates.

4. Debugging: Utilize the Twig Xdebug setup to debug your Twig templates. Understanding how to debug efficiently can save you hours of troubleshooting.

5. Online Tutorials and Courses: Platforms like Drupalize.Me offer Twig tutorials tailored for Drupal developers, providing both foundational and advanced concepts.

6. Practice: The best way to improve is by practicing. Take on various theming tasks, experimenting with different Twig functionalities within your Drupal projects.

By focusing on these areas and actively applying what you learn, you'll significantly improve your Twig skills as a Drupal developer.

How to Display Twig Skills on Your Resume

5. JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language used to create dynamic and interactive web content, essential for Drupal developers to enhance user experiences and interfaces in Drupal websites.

Why It's Important

JavaScript is crucial for Drupal developers as it enables the creation of interactive and dynamic user experiences on websites, enhancing user engagement and satisfaction.

How to Improve JavaScript Skills

Improving your JavaScript skills as a Drupal developer involves understanding both JavaScript fundamentals and how JavaScript integrates within Drupal. Here are concise steps to enhance your JavaScript proficiency:

1. Master JavaScript Basics: Start with the fundamentals. Understand variables, functions, objects, arrays, and ES6+ features. Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) JavaScript Guide is an excellent resource.

2. Learn the DOM API: Since Drupal leverages JavaScript to manipulate the DOM, get comfortable with the Document Object Model (DOM). Practice selecting, modifying, and creating elements dynamically. MDN DOM Introduction provides a solid foundation.

3. Understand Asynchronous JavaScript: Grasp concepts like callbacks, promises, and async/await since Drupal's frontend often interacts with web services asynchronously. JavaScript.info offers clear explanations and examples.

4. Explore Drupal's JavaScript API: Drupal has a specific way of managing JavaScript, including behaviors, libraries, and Ajax framework. The Drupal JavaScript API Overview is crucial to understand how to work within Drupal's framework effectively.

5. Practice with Projects: Apply what you've learned in actual Drupal projects. Try to improve existing sites or create new features using JavaScript. This hands-on experience is invaluable.

6. Join the Drupal Community: Engage with the Drupal community. Drupal JavaScript Slack channel and Drupal Stack Exchange are great places to ask questions, share knowledge, and stay updated on best practices.

7. Stay Updated and Keep Learning: JavaScript is ever-evolving. Follow JavaScript and Drupal blogs, newsletters, and attend webinars or conferences to stay current. JavaScript Weekly and DrupalCon are excellent resources for ongoing learning.

Focusing on these areas will significantly improve your JavaScript skills within the context of Drupal development.

How to Display JavaScript Skills on Your Resume

6. CSS

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in HTML, specifically for styling web pages. As a Drupal developer, it enables you to customize the appearance of your site's theme, including layout, colors, and fonts.

Why It's Important

CSS is crucial for a Drupal Developer as it enables the styling and layout customization of Drupal themes, ensuring websites are visually appealing and provide a seamless user experience across different devices and screen sizes.

How to Improve CSS Skills

Improving CSS, especially for a Drupal developer, involves understanding both the basics and advanced concepts of CSS, as well as Drupal's theming system and conventions. Here are concise steps and resources to help you along:

1. Learn CSS Fundamentals: Start with the basics—selectors, properties, values, and how to structure your CSS effectively. MDN Web Docs on CSS is an excellent place to begin.

2. Understand Drupal Theming: Familiarize yourself with Drupal's theming system, including how to add custom CSS to your theme. The Drupal Theming Guide provides a comprehensive overview.

3. CSS Methodologies: Adopt a CSS methodology like BEM, SMACSS, or OOCSS to write more maintainable and scalable CSS. This CSS Tricks article on BEM is a good starting point.

4. Preprocessors: Learn to use CSS preprocessors like SASS or LESS. They add features like variables and mixins to CSS, making your stylesheets more powerful and easier to manage. The Sass Guide covers all you need to know.

5. Responsive Design: Ensure your styles work on all devices by mastering responsive design techniques, including media queries. This Responsive Web Design Basics guide by Google is invaluable.

6. Performance and Organization: Focus on writing efficient CSS that doesn’t slow down your site. Organize your stylesheets in a way that makes them easy to maintain. The CSS Guidelines provide high-level advice and coding standards.

7. Tooling: Use tools like PostCSS to help automate your workflow and enhance your CSS with future-ready features. Explore PostCSS.

8. Practice and Review: Regularly review your CSS and refactor it. Practicing by building projects and reviewing your peers' code can provide new insights. Participate in code reviews within the Drupal community for real-world experience.

9. Stay Updated: CSS and Drupal are always evolving. Follow blogs, participate in forums, and attend meetups or conferences to stay up to date. The Drupal Community and CSS-Tricks are great resources.

By focusing on these areas, you'll improve your CSS skills in the context of Drupal development, leading to better themes and user experiences.

How to Display CSS Skills on Your Resume

7. HTML5

HTML5 is the latest version of the Hypertext Markup Language, providing enhanced support for multimedia, graphics, and application development features, essential for creating modern, responsive websites and web applications, including those managed with Drupal.

Why It's Important

HTML5 is important for a Drupal Developer because it introduces new semantic elements and APIs, enhancing content structure, multimedia handling, and device compatibility, which are crucial for creating modern, efficient, and responsive Drupal websites.

How to Improve HTML5 Skills

Improving HTML5 skills, especially as a Drupal developer, involves a blend of understanding HTML5's core features, staying updated with the latest web standards, and integrating these practices within Drupal's framework. Here’s a concise guide:

1. Master Semantic HTML5: Understand and utilize HTML5 semantic elements (<header>, <footer>, <article>, <section>, etc.) to enhance accessibility and SEO. MDN Web Docs on Semantic HTML provides comprehensive details.

2. Leverage HTML5 APIs: Dive into HTML5 APIs for advanced functionality (e.g., Geolocation, Drag and Drop, Local Storage). Explore HTML5 APIs for detailed insights.

3. Responsive Design with HTML5: Utilize <picture>, <source>, and media queries to create responsive designs that work across devices. The Responsive Images Guide is a great resource.

4. Accessibility (a11y): Enhance accessibility by using ARIA roles along with semantic HTML5. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides guidelines and strategies.

5. Integrate with Drupal: Learn how to apply your HTML5 knowledge within Drupal themes and modules. The Drupal Theming Guide is essential for understanding how to implement custom HTML5 structures in Drupal themes.

6. Stay Updated: HTML5 and web standards continuously evolve. Follow HTML5 Doctor and W3C Updates for the latest in HTML5 advancements.

By focusing on these areas and continually refining your skills through practice and ongoing learning, you can significantly improve your HTML5 capabilities as a Drupal developer.

How to Display HTML5 Skills on Your Resume

8. Git

Git is a version control system that allows Drupal developers to track changes in their code, collaborate with others, and manage different versions of their projects efficiently.

Why It's Important

Git is important for a Drupal Developer as it facilitates version control and collaboration, enabling efficient management of code changes, tracking of project history, and seamless integration with Drupal's community-driven development workflow.

How to Improve Git Skills

Improving your Git skills as a Drupal developer involves understanding both Git fundamentals and Drupal-specific best practices. Here are concise tips to enhance your Git proficiency:

1. Understand Git Basics: Start with a solid foundation in Git concepts like branching, merging, and commit management. Pro Git Book is an excellent resource.

2. Use Git for Drupal Development: Leverage Git for managing Drupal projects, modules, and themes. The Drupal.org documentation on Git provides a comprehensive guide.

3. Implement Git Flow: Adopt a workflow like Git Flow to manage features, releases, and hotfixes systematically. Atlassian’s GitFlow Guide explains this concept well.

4. Automate with Git Hooks: Utilize Git hooks for automation like code formatting and ensuring commit message standards. Git Hooks for Drupal can guide you through setting up.

5. Integrate with Drupal's Development Cycle: Familiarize yourself with integrating Git into Drupal’s development, staging, and production cycles. Pantheon’s Workflow provides insights into a workflow that incorporates Git.

6. Explore Advanced Git Techniques: Deepen your knowledge with advanced Git techniques like rebasing, cherry-picking, and interactive staging. The Advanced Git Tutorials on Atlassian cover these topics in detail.

7. Join the Drupal & Git Community: Engage with the Drupal community on forums and Git repositories. Contributing to Drupal’s GitLab can be a practical way to apply your skills and learn from others.

Improving your Git skills is a continuous process. Keep practicing, exploring new tools and techniques, and staying engaged with the community for the latest best practices.

How to Display Git Skills on Your Resume

9. MySQL

MySQL is a widely-used open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) that stores and manages data for web applications, including those built with Drupal, allowing for efficient data retrieval, storage, and manipulation through SQL queries.

Why It's Important

MySQL is important for a Drupal developer because it serves as the default database management system for Drupal, enabling efficient data storage, retrieval, and management, critical for building dynamic and scalable websites.

How to Improve MySQL Skills

Improving MySQL performance for Drupal developers involves several strategies focused on optimizing the database to handle queries more efficiently, reduce load times, and ensure scalability. Here's a concise guide:

1. Index Optimization: Ensure proper indexing of tables to speed up query execution. Utilize Drupal's built-in database abstraction layer to help define indexes for custom tables. MySQL Indexing

2. Query Performance: Optimize SQL queries for performance. Use Drupal's db_query() and db_select() methods effectively to leverage Drupal's optimization mechanisms. Optimizing SQL Queries

3. Configuration Tuning: Tweak MySQL's configuration settings (my.cnf or my.ini file) for better resource management. Adjust variables like innodb_buffer_pool_size and query_cache_size based on your server's workload. MySQL Configuration Tuning

4. Caching: Implement caching at the database level and within Drupal using modules like Memcache or Redis to reduce database load. Drupal Caching Overview

5. Regular Maintenance: Perform regular database maintenance tasks such as analyzing and optimizing tables and cleaning up old or redundant data. MySQL Table Maintenance

6. Use External Tools: Utilize external tools like Percona Toolkit for MySQL database performance tuning and monitoring. Percona Toolkit

7. Upgrade MySQL: Keep your MySQL server up-to-date to benefit from the latest performance improvements and features. MySQL Downloads

By applying these strategies, Drupal developers can significantly improve the performance of MySQL, leading to faster and more scalable Drupal sites.

How to Display MySQL Skills on Your Resume

10. Composer

Composer is a dependency management tool for PHP, allowing developers to manage and install libraries and dependencies for projects, including Drupal modules and themes, ensuring version compatibility and simplifying project maintenance.

Why It's Important

Composer is crucial for a Drupal developer because it simplifies managing and updating project dependencies, ensuring compatibility, and streamlining the installation of Drupal core, modules, and themes, thereby enhancing development efficiency and project maintainability.

How to Improve Composer Skills

To improve your experience with Composer as a Drupal developer, consider the following concise tips:

1. Use the Latest Version: Always update Composer to its latest version for improved performance and features (composer self-update).

2. Optimize Autoloader: Optimize Composer's autoloader for faster class loading with composer dump-autoload --optimize.

3. Manage Dependencies Efficiently: Specify precise versions for your dependencies. Use semantic versioning to avoid conflicts and ensure compatibility.

4. Use Composer Patches: Apply patches to Drupal modules and core using the cweagans/composer-patches plugin. This is especially useful for applying fixes that haven't been committed to the project repository yet.

5. Leverage Drupal-Specific Composer Templates: Start projects with Drupal-specific Composer templates like drupal/recommended-project to ensure a best-practice project structure and simplify maintenance.

6. Utilize Composer Scripts: Automate tasks such as clearing cache or running updates by defining custom scripts in composer.json.

7. Secure Your Project: Regularly check your dependencies for security vulnerabilities with Drupal Security Advisories or tools like Roave/SecurityAdvisories.

8. Minimize Merge Conflicts: Use the wikimedia/composer-merge-plugin to separate project-specific dependencies into their own composer.json files, reducing merge conflicts in team environments.

9. Cache Dependencies: Utilize Composer's cache feature or set up a private package repository to speed up installs and updates, especially in CI/CD pipelines.

10. Stay Informed and Participate in the Community: The Drupal Composer/Drupal Project on GitHub and Drupal-specific forums are great resources for staying up-to-date with best practices and getting help.

By integrating these practices into your workflow, you'll enhance your efficiency and security when managing Drupal projects with Composer.

How to Display Composer Skills on Your Resume

11. RESTful APIs

RESTful APIs are a set of web service APIs that adhere to the REST (Representational State Transfer) architectural style, allowing for interaction with web services in a standardized way. For a Drupal developer, this means using HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) to create, read, update, and delete resources (like content entities) in a Drupal site, facilitating easy and flexible integration with external applications and services.

Why It's Important

RESTful APIs are crucial for a Drupal Developer as they enable the seamless integration and communication between Drupal systems and external applications, facilitating the development of flexible, scalable, and more interactive web solutions.

How to Improve RESTful APIs Skills

To improve RESTful APIs as a Drupal developer, follow these concise strategies:

1. Use HTTP Methods Precisely: Ensure that GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and PATCH methods are used appropriately to represent CRUD operations accurately. HTTP Methods.

2. Implement Caching: Utilize Drupal's caching mechanisms to enhance performance. Drupal Cache API.

3. Optimize Payloads: Minimize data transfer by including only necessary fields in your response payloads. Consider the use of sparse fieldsets in Drupal. JSON:API Sparse Fieldsets.

4. Secure Your API: Use Drupal's built-in features and best practices for API security, including proper authentication, permissions, and HTTPS. Drupal Security.

5. Version Your API: Ensure backward compatibility and easy maintenance by versioning your API from the start. API Versioning.

6. Use Throttling: Protect your API from abuse and overuse by implementing request rate limiting. Drupal Rate Limiting.

7. Document Your API: Provide clear, comprehensive documentation using tools like Swagger or Redoc. Swagger Drupal Module.

8. Embrace HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State): Make your API more discoverable and self-documenting by including hyperlinks to related resources. HATEOAS.

9. Utilize Automated Testing: Implement tests for your API endpoints to ensure reliability and facilitate continuous integration. Drupal Test API.

10. Monitor and Analyze API Usage: Use tools to track how your API is being used and to identify bottlenecks or potential improvements. API Analytics.

By focusing on these areas, you can significantly enhance the performance, usability, and reliability of your RESTful APIs in Drupal.

How to Display RESTful APIs Skills on Your Resume

12. Drush

Drush is a command-line shell and scripting interface for managing Drupal websites, enabling developers to perform administrative tasks and automate updates.

Why It's Important

Drush (Drupal Shell) is a command-line interface that simplifies and speeds up tasks for Drupal developers, such as module installation, database updates, and cache clearing, thereby improving productivity and efficiency.

How to Improve Drush Skills

To improve your Drush skills and efficiency as a Drupal Developer, consider the following concise tips:

1. Stay Updated: Always update Drush to the latest version to ensure compatibility with the latest Drupal features and to leverage new commands.

2. Use Drush Aliases: Create and use Drush aliases for quick access to remote Drupal sites, saving time on SSH logins and path navigation.

3. Custom Commands: Develop custom Drush commands for repetitive tasks unique to your workflow, enhancing productivity.

4. Learn the Core Commands: Deeply understand and regularly use core Drush commands for tasks like clearing cache, updating databases, and syncing environments.

5. Scripting with Drush: Incorporate Drush commands into shell scripts for automating routine tasks like site backups, updates, and migrations.

6. Use Drush Make: Utilize Drush Make for managing project codebases, ensuring consistent builds across environments.

7. Explore Contributed Commands: Explore and integrate contributed Drush commands from the Drupal community to extend functionality.

8. Engage with the Community: Join Drupal forums and Drush discussions to learn from others, share your knowledge, and stay informed about best practices.

By adopting these practices, you'll enhance your Drush proficiency, streamline your development workflow, and contribute more effectively to Drupal projects.

How to Display Drush Skills on Your Resume