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Ask HN: I need advice getting a junior Rails dev job

5 points by piratebroadcast ↗ HN
HI All,

Ive been working with HTML/CSS/Wordpress/Drupal for a few years and have taught myself Rails. I've built 5 demo apps and am now doing the interview process with various companies. I'm new at this and wondering if people actually hire Jr Rails devs with the impression that they will grow and learn, or if Im setting myself up for disappointment. We hear in the media how desperate people are for developers, but I'm still looking for work. Granted, I'm getting technical interviews, but I;m usually not progressing from there. Any advice?

8 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 29.9 ms ] thread
byoung2
My advice for technical interviews as a non-CS major (I am making that assumption) would be:

Don't be afraid to admit what you don't know, but stress that you are a quick learner and that you will constantly be improving.

If they give you a technical question and you are unable to answer, research it later and email them your answer. It shows that you don't give up, and it shows you weren't lying about constantly learning.

If you get a question like implementing a native function without using any native functionality, they are testing your ability to write efficient code. Read up on runtime complexity and even if you can't code it, be able to explain what is inefficient and what you might do to make it better.

Even as a junior dev with little experience if you do those in a technical interview you show potential and you are worth training.

Source: English major working as a software engineer after fumbling through many technical interviews.

caphill
I am in the same boat. I have been working as a Web Developer for 2 years doing full-stack but PHP as the backend. Switched over to Ruby 3 months ago and the positions I did find I never heard back after applying.

I am now doing a Rails internship for free for a few weeks and then I am bumped to minimum wage while keeping my current Web dev job.

[dead] opendomain
See my offer above if you would like to help!
vellum
Try going to some meetups. You might meet people that will offer you a job or hire you to do some contract work.
opendomain
I am looking for someone to create a tutorial for Ruby on Rails that will be free for everyone to use for RubyRails.Com as part of my open source project OpenDomain. This will get exposure for the author plus I am willing to pay for original content for each video produced. Contact me HN AT RubyRails.Com
wikwocket
You don't have to apply for a junior rails dev job. Apply for a developer job at any place that does or doesn't use rails.

Based on the info here, your prior submissions, your history of delivering value through web stacks, and the fact that you're motivated enough to teach yourself new tech and post about it to HN, you're already a step above fresh CS grads, i.e. the only people who should settle for "junior" jobs.

Don't sell yourself short, and don't give up!