My 2 cents, there isn't very much "why" there.

I have couple sites built in CI, as well as sites in Laravel. It all depends on whether my clients have a older server or newer web host.

I do my own site in Play Framework w/ Java, my web app in MeteorJS w/ Node.js and Node Webkit. I mean, just pick the right tool at the right time, a tool is a tool, there should not a strict rule to limit yourself from not using them. :D

I think that's good advice...

I'm a little bit slow in momentum for picking up new things these days, 29 years old, been in the industry for a while now but haven't been rendering pro services for a couple of years.

Decided to pick up a new tool and try get back into the contract marketplace and well Laravel seems to be the cool tech right now.

What you said has made me re-think that a little bit, but to take this off-topic some... How exactly does one trade having taken 2 years out due to circumstance? Which services are being rendered?

Previously I got a lot of work as a front-end designer and WordPress theme developer for bespoke set-ups. My skill-set is pretty much HTML, CSS, SCSS, PHP, WordPress, BuddyPress, jQuery and also have a diploma in Computing Science from my local college.

I see absolutely no way to find contracts, it doesn't seem an easy task to get jobs via web forums any more and places like o-desk pay pennies. Working for a company in a bricks and mortar place is a difficult proposition as 2 years out has left me with no portfolio and rusty skill-set.

Also, what type of portfolio are people looking for? Seems like web sites are less and less popular, like I ask small business owners in shops or restaurants... Do you have a site? No, but we are on this directory, or yes we built it ourselves.

Advice appreciated.

I used CI until 2013. It's indeed a good framework. When i started using Laravel i realized that Laravel is easier to work with than CI. I haven't used CI after 2013 so i don't know any of it's new features. So my comparison might be wrong.

Laravel has a nice CLI which makes it really easy to do common tasks like generating classes, db migration and even queue .. etc. Laravel does not have a CRUD generator by default but there are packages you can install to do that.
Db migration and the queue system are other things i like to point out. You can switch your queue driver, mail driver or even the storage system to what ever the driver you want with minimal code changes at anytime. Above all Laravel can create your application faster because everything you expect in an app is already there and all you need to do it change a few lines of code to suite your needs. Laravel comes with a server so you dont have a waste time configuring your server for local developing, handy for designers who dont have technical knowledge.

There's been a huge change in the industry lately. People dont want website anymore, yes, they need solutions to improve their business. Because there are more developers (specially php) and some who call them "developers" it's really hard to find good projects. I used to to projects on guru and o-desk too. But some freelancers, mostly indians, they do tasks that cost a lot for a few bucks.. that's a humiliation to the industry. Every freelancer should give the right value to their job.

Thanks for the heads up, Laravel seems cool. I'm gonna run with it for a while and get set up with some basic recipes to work on the platform for small sites and maybe some cooler sites a little later.

I like the idea of a CLI but really for small sites it's not a huge gain to generate a plain controller, that's a copy paste or snippet job imo.

Beyond that, I'll fumble around for a while and figure out how to query database and use the helpers available.

Migrations seem cool, but my work experience doesn't really require migrations or ability to roll back. Although maybe I should be looking into more advanced setups and pursue a job in a bricks and mortar shop after all.

The industry sucks, that's why I left it but in reality I'm tied to it until I can get the money together to re-train.

Migrations seem cool, but my work experience doesn't really require migrations or ability to roll back.

believe me you will want it.it's daunting when it comes to changing your sql tables after a deploy. Before laravel i used to create my own sql updated to do this and run them on the sql server on the live site. Which is very dangerous because if i made a mistake it's hard to undo that. But on laravel it's easy as running a command. For shares hosting in which you dont have cli access to the server you can still run your artisan cli commands through normal php methods.