Permis à Points tech hiring: 2 PHP developers hired | Case Study

🎯 The client

Permis à Points, founded in 2005, is the market leader in centralizing driver's license points-recovery course providers across France.

A human-scale company with a family-style atmosphere, operating in a stable and genuinely useful market.

It was Aurèle, business development lead, who reached out to us in March 2024, following a referral.

👥 Tech team at the time:

• 5 people
• 2 front-end developers
• 2 senior PHP developers
• 1 SEO / SEA specialist

Phase 1 — Hiring a hands-on, "in-the-trenches" PHP developer

Context

• Existing stack on PHP 5 and Symfony 3.4
• Goal: gradually migrate to PHP 8 and Symfony 5
• A small team with a lot of maintenance to handle

Profile we were looking for

• PHP developer with 3 to 5 years of experience minimum
• Very comfortable with native PHP and algorithms
• Knowledge of Symfony (v2 to v6)
• Autonomy, adaptability, and good communication
• Bonus: interest in system administration

Result

• 4 candidates submitted
• 1 hire signed in less than a month, after a 4-day process
• Fast onboarding into a tight-knit technical team

Phase 2 — One year later, new leadership, new dynamics

Context

In March 2025, Aurèle reached out again, but in a very different context:

• The leadership had changed, with a clear intent to modernize the stack
• A new tech lead joined: Arthur de Rougé
• Goal: rework the existing system, improve practices, hire for the long term
• Need: a senior developer to support him in this mission

Role objectives

• Refactor the technical stack to improve velocity
• Close collaboration with the existing developers and skill-up across the team
• Permanent hire to stabilize the new organization

Profile we were looking for

• Expert Symfony developer
• API Platform: required
• Experience with microservices, unit and functional testing
• Strong autonomy, good interpersonal skills, comfortable in a team
• Experience on high-traffic platforms

Result

• A single candidate submitted
• 1 hire signed 🎯
• A perfect match between the technical need and the team's personality

💡 In summary

✔️ 2 successful hires in 12 months

✔️ 2 very different contexts: maintenance / refactoring & modernization

✔️ A trusted relationship built over time

✔️ A deep understanding of the technical, human, and strategic stakes

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