[Nathandim]

While I consider web development as my original approach to programming, I do want to get a firm grasp around deeper programming concepts. With that said, what I care about most right now is to hit 2 birds with 1 stone: Learn programming with a language that will make me employable.

[bmelton]

As someone who originally learned to develop with PHP, then hopped around from language to language trying to find something that I could click with that also fixed all the things that were broken in PHP, I eventually landed on Python.

For what it's worth, Python is a great web language, and while sure, there aren't quite as many job opportunities as you might find in PHP, I'd wager that the average pay for the Python jobs you find is higher than the average PHP programming opportunity (even wit Facebook screwing up the averages.)

It's also worth saying that there are tons of Python jobs available, just as there are plenty of big websites built in Python. Regardless, Python is a fantastic learning language, and you'll be in a much better position to learn a new language when you know more about programming in general than you are now (in my opinion).