Forum: Ruby on Rails Career change: becoming RoR dev

Hi all,
I'm 27 and worked in the sysadmin field for about five years now. I've
been using Ruby to help me for the past two-three years, and I started
with Ruby on Rails, albeit slowly, over a year ago.

I'd like to make the switch to becoming a full-time Rails dev, but I
can't devote much free time to developing the skills and experience
required to comfortably say "Take me for a Senior position". Most of my
free time is spent studying and teaching martial arts, something which I
would not trade for the world.

If location could be a concern, I live on Long Island, so I'm not too
far from NYC.

My question to you is, how would you recommend going about effecting
this transition? Any steps, ideas, advice?

>
> I'd like to make the switch to becoming a full-time Rails dev, but I
> can't devote much free time to developing the skills and experience
> required to comfortably say "Take me for a Senior position".


So, just to ensure I'm clear - are you asking for shortcuts to be able 
to
get you straight in to a senior position - or just after hints to 
improve so
you may take a non-senior position and work up to it?


> Most of my
> free time is spent studying and teaching martial arts, something which I
> would not trade for the world.
>

I feel you, I love teaching Taekwondo...


> My question to you is, how would you recommend going about effecting
> this transition? Any steps, ideas, advice?
>

Practice.  Start thinking of small, useful ideas and launch sites for 
them.
 They could be small sites (dynamically generated) with documentation, 
or
search engine automation/mashups.  You then get to practice automated
testing, deployment, development.

Set up a github account and make some gems/plugins and put them on there 
for
potential employers to find.

Start trying to help people on here - I always found that in putting 
forward
help to those just coming in helped solidify my own learning, sometimes 
I
was right (and got a hearty thanks), sometimes I was wrong (and got the
chance to learn when a more senior developer chimed in).  Either way, 
you're
getting value.  Soon you'll be at a point when you can do everything and
easily answer questions in interviews (and then you can give more back).

It boils down to learn, practice, teach - the same as in martial arts, 
each
stage has it's own learnings and each is important.

Cheers,


Andy

Andy Jeffries wrote:

> So, just to ensure I'm clear - are you asking for shortcuts to be able 
> to
> get you straight in to a senior position - or just after hints to 
> improve so
> you may take a non-senior position and work up to it?
> 
Well, if you happen to know black magic, I'll buy a shortcut for 400; 
otherwise, the proper way to do things would suit me just fine :-)
> 
>> Most of my
>> free time is spent studying and teaching martial arts, something which I
>> would not trade for the world.
>>
> I feel you, I love teaching Taekwondo...
Ooh.. Where do you teach? (I know, we're going off-topic!)
>>
> 
> Practice.  Start thinking of small, useful ideas and launch sites for 
> them.
>  They could be small sites (dynamically generated) with documentation, 
> or
> search engine automation/mashups.  You then get to practice automated
> testing, deployment, development.
*nod*
> 
> Set up a github account and make some gems/plugins and put them on there 
> for
> potential employers to find.
http://github.com/Trevoke :-)
> 
> Start trying to help people on here - I always found that in putting 
> forward
> help to those just coming in helped solidify my own learning, sometimes 
> I
> was right (and got a hearty thanks), sometimes I was wrong (and got the
> chance to learn when a more senior developer chimed in).  Either way, 
> you're
> getting value.  Soon you'll be at a point when you can do everything and
> easily answer questions in interviews (and then you can give more back).
> 
> It boils down to learn, practice, teach - the same as in martial arts, 
> each
> stage has it's own learnings and each is important.
> 

Understood :) And as far as the search for a position, it's .. Standard 
operating procedure?

>
> > I feel you, I love teaching Taekwondo...
> Ooh.. Where do you teach? (I know, we're going off-topic!)
>

I'm an assistant instructor at a club in Stevenage, Herts, UK.  I used 
to
have my own club for a few years, but now just help out/deputise.


> Understood :) And as far as the search for a position, it's .. Standard
> operating procedure?
>

Yep, contact the pimps (agencies).

Cheers,



Andy

Andy Jeffries wrote:
>>
>> > I feel you, I love teaching Taekwondo...
>> Ooh.. Where do you teach? (I know, we're going off-topic!)
>>
> 
> I'm an assistant instructor at a club in Stevenage, Herts, UK.  I used 
> to
> have my own club for a few years, but now just help out/deputise.
> 
Very nice :)  Wish it were on my side of the pond, I love meeting fellow 
martial artists.

Thanks for the advice. I'll just keep digging!

Given your sys admin skills you could join a small company and be a 
sysadmin
/ developer and use that to get you skills then either become full time
developer or move on with a CV that says developer.

I seem to be going the other way :)

I have to agree here; your strongest skill is one that is often lacking 
in
Rails developers.

You should be building an online 'portfolio', but if I were you, I'd 
focus
on deployment and testing for value add to companies.

--
Jeremy Chase
http://twitter.com/jeremychase



On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Peter Hickman <

I don't know about NYC, but in Romania there is a great need for
senior RoR developers, and one year could be enough, specially with
your sysadmin background. If you have a few big(ish) projects in your
portfolio, I'm sure you will have no trouble in US. Also try to find a
small company with challenging projects. Even if you get slightly
less, the experience you gain could make you a sought for RoR expert
in the near future.
Good luck with it, and I hope you find your dream job soon.