What must you know before you can get an entry-level Rails job?

Question

Rails seems to be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.

When I look at job postings for Rails they often contain a lot of requirements beyond just being able to throw an app together. This makes me think that even if knew the Agile Rails book from front cover to back I still wouldn't qualify for most Rails jobs.

So if you wanted to start at the bottom and get a basic entry-level Rails job, what would you generally need to know before you started vs. what would likely be a 'bonus'?

Answer 1

You should know a variety of web technologies, not just Rails. Learn databases. Learn Javascript and CSS. And in Rails, learn how to code complex entity relationships.

Answer 2

I got a job as an intern developing ruby on rails. I had no experience in it, and they knew it. Show knowledge in other technologies, especially other kinds of coding like php or asp.net. I had experience in php and asp.net with c#.

Showing you understand coding techniques is probably the most important part.

Answer 3

You're never going to get hired for knowing just one thing. Be well-rounding and know some client-side (javacsript, flex, gwt, etc), server-side (J2EE, php, etc) and some database techs. Knowing concepts helps as well.

Answer 4

You should know ruby well enough to answer general programming questions.

You should also be able to point to a site that you have developed from start to finish, even if it's just a blog or an online portfolio, that shows you understand the full development process and stack. I would expect questions like:

• "How did you deploy the app?"
• "How do you manage dependencies?"
• "How did you test the app?"

Due to the nature of the job a rails developer will most likely have a good understanding of:

• HTML (bonus for knowing haml or markaby)
• CSS (bonus for knowing sass)
• Javascript - prototype/jquery/dojo/etc... being able to compare and contrast the various frameworks would be beneficial
• Databases - understanding how to analyse performance and diagnose slow queries
• Deployment
• Source control

If you want to impress a future employer the best way to do so is to show examples of your work. If you're starting out then one way to do that would be to make a meaningful contribution to an open source project or develop something and make it public on github.

Answer 5

You don't need to know anything about rails to get an entry-level rails job(because it is so easy to pick up, people expect you to pick up quick).

to answer your question, some must haves are: 1. a good will to learn(very important) 2. good problem solving skills(problem often does not have one single best answer, what is your approach to solve a complex problem, step by step, how do you break down the problem? etc...very important)

good background in computer related area is beneficial, but not required. other nice to have skills including(javascript, css, solid database knowledge, java/c or other programming language), but again, they are just nice to have.

But again, the answer to your question will be different depending on the context(the company culture, the position requirements etc..), some companies prefer to hire specialists, who have the knowledge, some companies prefer to hire generalist who can solve problems.