# Career change: becoming RoR dev

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 9, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853 "2010-03-09T14:47:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/trevoke)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853/1 "2010-03-09T14:47:04Z")

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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?

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**Author:** ![trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/trevoke)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853/2 "2010-03-09T15:28:25Z")

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> 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

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**Author:** ![trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/trevoke)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853/3 "2010-03-09T15:37:53Z")

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Andy J. 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.  
> [Trevoke (Trevoke) · GitHub](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?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/trevoke)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853/4 "2010-03-09T16:07:38Z")

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> > 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

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/trevoke)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853/5 "2010-03-09T16:59:42Z")

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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 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/trevoke)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853/6 "2010-03-09T16:20:22Z")

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Andy J. 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!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/trevoke)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853/7 "2010-03-09T17:47:07Z")

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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 C.  
[http://twitter.com/jeremychase](http://twitter.com/jeremychase)

On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Peter H. \<

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@trevoke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/trevoke)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/career-change-becoming-ror-dev/184853/8 "2010-03-11T12:07:17Z")

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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.