This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz
by James Britt.
Original Post: Looking for Rubyists while it still makes sense.
Feed Title: James Britt: Ruby Development
Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/JamesBritt-Home
Feed Description: James Britt: Playing with better toys
I’m trying to find Ruby developers. Rails developers, really (though preferably Rails developers who actually know Ruby). I’ve got work for them.
However, they’re hard to find in my neck of the woods, (i.e., approximately Phoenix, AZ). And, based on calls from folks out of state, I’m not alone.
It’s not that there are no Ruby people around here; there are some. The Phoenix Ruby User Group meeting gets around a dozen people on average (plus there are some who can’t, or don’t want to, partake in the group’s monthly edutaintment festivities).
But I regularly get calls from people looking to hire Rails developers, and I’m having a hard time finding people who are available, qualified, and reliable.
It’s a funny sort of problem. Apparently (at least around here), if you are already a Ruby consultant, you’ve got plenty of work. So busy you don’t return calls or answer E-mail. If you’re a client looking for a Ruby developer, though, you may start questioning the wisdom of that choice. To make things worse, I’ve gotten calls from people who had a Ruby shop looking after them, but have gotten the nudge to go find someone else to look after their project. There could be all sorts of reasons for this; a client starts asking for more attention than expected, or a contractor or consulting shop finds more lucrative clients so they give the heave-ho to some existing ones.
The upshot to this may be that clients start questioning the practicality of having their apps built on Rails. I used to scoff when people suggested that picking Ruby as your business technology was risky because you might end up with trouble hiring skilled people, but there seems to be some truth in that. And not only might it be hard to get Ruby people to look after your project, but even if you find one they may lose interest and you’ll be on the hunt again.
All this, of course, is anecdotal. It might be exactly the same for people looking for Java or PHP consultants (whom are in abundance here). Maybe it’s just how the market plays itself out. My sense, though, is that market ebbs and flows are more of a problem when there are fewer players. These shifts just matter less when there are a lot of people skilled in Foo and a lot of people looking for Foo hackers.
For busy Ruby consultants the current balance is great. But we can’t be short-sighted. If you’re asked to take on some work, but don’t have the resources, make an effort to find someone who does. Pass on names and numbers. The last thing you want is to pull your head up after the end of some engrossing project only to find that no one is calling you anymore because they’re tired of getting burned or tired of relying on a scarce resource and went down the PHP|Java|ASP.net path.
In any event, if you’re in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area, and you’re good with Ruby, and you’re looking for some work, drop me a line: james+jobs@neurogami.com. Or if you know someone who might be interested, have them get in touch with me. I’m at the point where I feel awkward encouraging people to bet their business on Ruby, but I’m also optimistic people will prove me wrong.
And if you’re a local Rubyist not looking for work, please make the time to come to the monthly meeting, help support the community, and help each of us keep up-to-date on who’s doing what.
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