Rails City of the Week: New York

An article in The New York Times this week highlighted New York as a "hotbed of innovation," stressing, in particular, the recent growth and promise of NYC's tech sector.  It seemed to be destiny, then, that we picked New York as this week's Rails City of the Week.

If you haven't already read the article, it's worth checking out as much of what's going on in the NYC tech sector as a whole is reflected in the NYC Ruby world as well.  The article also provides some interesting insight into the differences between New York and Silicon Valley (and why more and more technologists are finding the Big Apple appealing).  

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Rails City of the Week: Boston

Since the start of the New Year, we've had clients signing up from all corners of the country.  With the abundance of Rails opportunities we're currently hiring for, we've decided to run a series of posts featuring a different top Rails city each week. 

First up: Boston.  And where better to begin?  The Greater Boston area is, after all, home to mirRoR HQ and most of the mirRoR crew has called Boston (or New England) home for years.  Despite the fact that Boston is home for us, the current Rails scene may persuade you to consider making Boston home for you!

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Ask For Your Ruby on Rails Job Like Nicolas Cage

The interview process is very similar to the sales process.  You've likely heard that before, but your ability to sell yourself (your skills, experience, and drive) is directly linked to your ability to land a job.  

Put your job search in terms of the sales process.  You've got all your marketing materials; you've polished your resume, updated your website, and cleaned up your code samples on GitHub.  You've got your sales pitch down; you've practiced for your interview and are prepared to nail the toughest questions.  But just like in sales, none of this matters if you don't close the deal.

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There's More to Life (and Your Job) Than RoR

As you (likely) know, at mirRoR, all we do is Ruby on Rails.  It is our life.  We live it.  Breathe it.  Sleep it.  Sometimes even dream it.  But the truth is-- there is more to life than Ruby on Rails.  Specifically, there's more to landing a RoR gig than just your Ruby skills.

Today we'd like to discuss some of those offline intangibles that can affect your candidacy, oftentimes in a serious way.

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How to Find the Right Rails Employer for You

There is a lot of advice out there on how to interview for a job.  It's a lot of stuff you already know.  Get there early.  Stay calm.  Do your research on the company.  Show what you know.  Follow up.  Etc.  (We even wrote some Rails-specific interview advice.)  But what about how to interview the company you're interviewing with.

While there is no need to be overly picky in your job search, you do want to make sure that as much as the company finds the right fit in you, you also find the company to be the right fit for you.

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How to Reject a Developer

Although it takes skill to accept (hire) a developer, it also takes skill to reject a developer.  How to reject a developer doesn't get much air time though.  Why not?  No one likes to do it.  No one likes to fire people (well, except George Clooney's character in Up in the Air) and no one likes to tell people to get lost after an interview or two.

But it needs to be done.

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It's a small (Ruby on Rails) world, after all.

As most everyone knows, the Ruby on Rails community is relatively small.  The number of Rails developers (folks who are using the framework professionally more or less full-time) that we keep track of is just under 10,000  (up from 700 in late 2006).  To put this in perspective, our entire world is about the size of a large Ivy's undergrad enrollment (somewhere between Columbia and Penn, specifically).  

If you picked any 5 of these Rails developers out of a hat (or our database) there's a pretty decent chance that a few of them know each other, and almost a certainty that some have heard of each other.  Six degrees of separation doesn't apply to the Rails community... it's more like 2.

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5 Myths About Landing a Ruby on Rails Job

Myth #1: To land a Rails job, I have to have at least a year or two of professional Rails experience.

Fact: Actual Rails experience is great if you have it.  That may sound obvious, but here's what we mean: even if you don't have any professional Rails experience, you'll gain an incredible leg up on other candidates if you have some sort of Ruby side work you can show off.  Even if it's a code sample you whip up and post to GitHub, try to have something tangible you can show that proves you know the basics (or more) about the Ruby language and Rails framework.

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Rudolph the Ruby-nosed Reindeer

In the style of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer"

Rudolph, the Ruby-nosed reindeer Wrote some really awesome code. And if you ever test it, You would even say it glows.

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Things NOT to do in your Ruby on Rails Interview

There's a lot of general advice out there about what you should do in your job interview.  Some of it's good, some of it's not so good.  Some advice applies to all types of jobs; some advice applies to specific industries, positions, or companies.  

Since Rails is all we do here at mirRoR, we thought we'd pull together a list of Rails-specific job interview advice.  Some of these ideas can be applied to other types of job interviews, but these are some of the most important interviewing tips we've gathered from our experience in the Ruby on Rails community.  Since a lot of the things you should do in an interview are fairly obvious, we thought we'd list some of the most important things NOT to do.

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Now Hiring: Rock$tar$ Only!

The Best Company Ever (TBCE) is now hiring.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! 

Company Background:

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With Girlfriends & Employers: Make A Clean Break.

Last week we discussed three options when it comes to job offers: accepting, rejecting, or countering.  We decided to leave one related topic out because it demands a post of its own: evaluating counter offers from your current employer.

Let's imagine the situation:  You're unhappy at your current job (for whatever reason) and decide to look around for something better.  You interview with a few companies and are made an offer.  You decide to take the new job and give notice to your current employer.  Your current employer, however, can't afford to lose you and makes you a counter offer.  Typically, they'll offer more money, along with a new title and more responsibility to persuade you to stay on board.  The question now is: what do you do?

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Congratulations, you've got a job offer. Now what?

After many rounds of interviewing, code tests, HR reviews and other painstaking job search activities, you've finally been made an official job offer. Congratulations!  The question now is: Will you accept?  Reject?  Counter?  From our experience at mirRoR, we've collected some advice on the appropriate ways of rejecting/accepting/countering an offer.

How to reject an offer...  

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We hate recruiters too.

Many Rails developers and employers mention seeing mirRoR's Google Ads.  We've been using AdWords for years and have met some great Rails developers and employers through them. 

We like to keep things interesting and change the ads up every so often.  In our recent wave of Google Ads, we were surprised by one ad in particular that has one of the best click-through rates in our campaign.  The title of the ad is: "We hate recruiters too."

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Short Money Shortsightedness

Aside from the previously discussed culprit (time), disagreements over relatively small compensation issues are the biggest deal killers in the Ruby on Rails community.  I can't tell you how many deals we've seen fall apart over 10k, 5k, or less.  

This is a shame, because Rails companies are typically looking for a personality and skill set match and have found both if an offer has been presented.  (Contrast this to a larger 'enterprisey' institution looking to fill cubes where personality isn't as big of a deal.)  Why do deals fall apart over such small numbers?  

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Time KILLS

Yesterday we began a discussion about why deals are lost at the final stage of the hiring process--after an offer has been presented.  The #1 culprit in the Ruby on Rails community: time.

Oftentimes the first offer that is presented is a verbal one.  Company X says to Candidate Y, "We like you, you like us, we want to hire you for $Z."  Candidate Y agrees and says, "Terrific, send me over the paperwork!"  Then... nothing for days... silence...

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Losing Deals REALLY Hurts.

We've lost a lot of deals over the years.  I'm not talking about losing deals that land clients for mirRoR (we occasionally lose those too) but hirings that don't happen after an offer has been presented to a developer.

It's tough to lose the deal at this stage because if an offer has been made, it means that all three parties (mirRoR, employer, developer) have invested considerable time and energy in the process, and that each saw enough potential to see it through to this point. 

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