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Ask HN: Data on job market for entry-level Rails devs?

by BrainScraps on 4/7/13, 10:38 PM with 34 comments

Hi HN,

I'm about to pivot my life from using my marketing degree to devoting myself to becoming a Rails developer. My wonderful and analytical wife wants to see some hard data on the number of open junior Rails dev positions vs the number of applicants, or anything of that sort. She's too careful to believe my "everyone says we're in the middle of a Great Dev Drought" protestations.

Please help me find the right data. And if you have some anecdotal evidence, we'll consider that too!

Thanks a ton!

@brainscraps

EDIT: Since there is a consensus that having an active GitHub profile is a good thing, no matter how messy, here's a link: https://github.com/BrainScraps

  • by nateberkopec on 4/8/13, 1:04 AM

    As someone trying to hire Rails devs right now, I have two things to say - one good, one bad.

    * The Good News: I started coding 18 months ago, and now I'm a lead developer at a funded startup and a two-time contributor to Rails (along with other contributions to open source).

    * The Bad News: While there is a hiring drought, there is NOT a drought for hiring guys who just learned Rails three-to-six-months ago at a dev bootcamp somewhere. We get literally dozens of cold emails a week from people like this. The amount they can contribute is almost nothing and 95% aren't capable of holding down a FT junior position.

    I think my point is don't think that you'll go to some bootcamp at have a job for 90k with benefits in 6 months. You need to work your ass off to be employable in that amount of time, although it's possible.

  • by techiferous on 4/7/13, 11:13 PM

    Good Rails devs are hard to find and in large demand. As a beginning Rails developer, though, you'll need to convince your new employer that you are a net gain. A junior dev can need so much hand-holding that they can steal away precious time from a senior dev.

    Put some good Ruby code on github. If you can, you'll improve your chances of getting hired quite a bit. If you can't then you're not ready to be hired yet.

  • by itsprofitbaron on 4/7/13, 10:57 PM

    There are 211 jobs available with Ruby on Rails positions advertised on AngelList. 47 of those jobs advertise $100-109k positions & 64 are offering .5-.9% equity.

    You can enter your area etc for a more detailed range etc: https://angel.co/salaries

  • by auctiontheory on 4/7/13, 11:23 PM

    I'm sure you'll get some good data here.

    But you give no indication that you enjoy programming. As someone who has made significant career changes myself, I caution you that choosing a profession solely to follow demand, and not based on your true interests, can turn out badly.

  • by sherm8n on 4/7/13, 11:17 PM

    There are so many jobs and freelance projects available for Rails developers. The thing I find amazing is that anyone I talk to looking for Rails developers is that they can't find enough talented people.

    Also, Rails is so easy that you can slide by being junior.

  • by piratebroadcast on 4/8/13, 12:07 AM

    I have recently been accepted to www.launchacademy.co, which is a full stack/Rails developer "bootcamp" in Boston, and I am also interested in this data. Entry level Rails devs get paid differently, regionally. That being said, I know 30 of us have put our life on hold to do this school. I am sure you made the right decision.

    EDIT: Quora has a lot of data about this. I am told that junior Rails developers in Boston can expect to make between 70-90k salary starting out. SF and NYC is higher.

  • by Denzel on 4/8/13, 12:16 AM

    You are correct, we are in the middle of a "Great Dev Drought," keyword being "Great" or rather talented. I don't have any hard data for you per se, but I can tell you that of the ~100 candidates we've interviewed for a junior Rails position, we've accepted approximately 2%.

    Our entire pool is filled with software engineers and web developers that look very qualified on paper. However, it's hard to find someone with a good mix of (1) theoretical computer science knowledge, (2) practical programming experience, (3) problem solving skills, and (4) the drive to be truly great.

    I have one piece of advice: If you are simply looking to "pivot" into programming for a job and because it's the hot thing to do, then don't! But if anything programming and computers is truly your passion; if it excites you so much that you have trouble sleeping; if you couldn't imagine your life doing anything else, then go for it by all mens. The odds are stacked against you, but you can beat them if you work hard. Good luck!

  • by cpursley on 4/8/13, 1:50 AM

    I asked a similar question on Quora that's had some really great answers: http://www.quora.com/Ruby-on-Rails/What-are-the-minimum-leve...

  • by tommypalm on 4/9/13, 12:57 PM

    I've worked with Rails for 2 years after finishing University. One email to the London Ruby User Group got 15 replies and out of those I got 6 interviews and 2 job offers.