The IT recruitment industry, and IT managers along with them, still fail to understand Drupal and the key roles required for a successful Drupal project.

I have talked with a number of IT recruitment agency consultants recently and have been concerned by their obvious lack of understanding of Drupal - yet they are attempting to recruit the right people for their clients in this space.

This misunderstanding is negating the primary value-proposition for Drupal - i.e. "configure first - then - and only then - code".

Time and time again you will have seen adverts for "Drupal Developers with PHP coding skills". You will see 10 of these adverts for every one that you see that asks for a "Drupal Site Builder" with skills such as "Drupal, information architecture, usability and accessibility knowledge and expertise" etc.

Yet, it is true that even a sophisticated Drupal website will achieve 90 to 95% of its functionality through Drupal core and contributed modules - meaning a "Drupal Developer" with advanced PHP skills will be required much less than a Drupal Site Builder - in fact it could be argued around ten times less. So, the recruitment drives we see for Drupal staff seem to have things badly wrong - just about the wrong way around completely. This misunderstanding is negating the primary value-proposition for Drupal - i.e. "configure first - then - and only then - code".

There are three main roles on a Drupal project that get the work done. They are: Site Builder, Themer and Module Developer. Whereas both a Drupal Site Builder and a Drupal Themer will benefit from some PHP knowledge - by and large they will get by just fine with little or none. Of course, the best and most experienced "Drupalistas" can probably turn their hand to all three roles. But, on larger projects you need key development staff working to their strengths. I would argue the optimum split for most Drupal projects will be like this. Let's say you need five Drupalistas. You should, as a good rule of thumb have: three Site Builders, one PHP Developer and one Themer.

I look forward to the time when the IT recruitment gang better understands Drupal and starts working better for their clients. We really should see more adverts for "Drupal Site Builders - no PHP needed - but strong Drupal building skills required". Just now Drupal projects are struggling to find the right people simply because they are - by and large - asking for the wrong skill set.