So, you’ve done the hard work to find resumes and profiles for the Ruby on Rails Developer position.
It could be through job sites, referrals, social media, or a recruiting IT agency helped you, but no matter how you find your candidates, now you need to find someone who is right for the job you are trying to fill.
But there is a catch. Technical interviews take up precious time that your current developers can use to build your product. To move forward, you need to conduct as few interviews with hiring managers as possible and try to evaluate the skills of IT specialists yourself.
But how do you eliminate unqualified candidates and make sure the right ones get interviewed? In this article, we will tell you everything about the selection and evaluation of Ruby on Rails programmers.
1. What is Ruby and Ruby on Rails?
This is an interesting question because Ruby and Ruby on Rails are two different things. Ruby is a programming language with dynamic interpretation. It was released back in 1995, influenced by Perl. However, it can be easily compared to Python.
What is Ruby on Rails?
Ruby on Rails is a framework. Released 10 years after the original release of Ruby, it has become the most widely used framework in the Ruby language. It is web oriented, mainly used for building web applications and follows the MVC pattern.
Ruby is unique among programming environments in that most development is done using a single environment. This does not mean that other frameworks and libraries are not used with Ruby. It’s just that Ruby on Rails is a significant part of the development done in this language. As a result, we’re going to focus this article on checking Ruby on Rails instead of Ruby in general.
In fact, Ruby is a general purpose language that was built with simplicity and performance in mind. With these goals in mind, its syntax is very easy to read and write.
What is Ruby on Rails used for?
Ruby on Rails is mainly used for coding web applications and the back end of mobile applications. It has many advantages in these areas. First, it’s open source. There is a huge community of developers who use and update it. It is also time and cost oriented, making it ideal for business applications. Finally, it ensures test and code quality, which means that only high quality code will be produced.
If you are into any kind of web development, Ruby on Rails is one of the most popular frameworks in Ruby today. One reason is that Ruby and Ruby on Rails are relatively easy to learn. It’s easy to start programming and then once you get started it’s easy to improve your skills. In addition, the readability of Ruby makes it much easier to understand someone else’s code.
2. What is important for an IT recruiter to know about Ruby on Rails developers?
Probably the most important takeaway is that there is a difference between pure Ruby and Ruby on Rails. This means that hiring a pure Ruby developer and a Ruby on Rails developer are not the same thing. There are other Ruby frameworks, such as Sinatra, that may be useful to the developer. But these libraries do a lot of things, so don’t expect a pure Ruby programmer who knows Sinatra to have a deep understanding of Ruby on Rails.
However, you should not forget that knowledge of Ruby and the framework of your choice are the most important things you should look for. It is also important to be up to date with the latest version of the language. Ruby is fairly stable, but the candidate should be familiar with the latest versions of Ruby and Rails.
How often does the environment change
One of the reasons why Ruby on Rails is stable is that the environment changes regularly. About every two years, a new version of Rails comes out. While there are usually some new features, there is usually a high degree of backwards compatibility. In addition, a new version of Ruby is released roughly every year.
Ruby is an open source language and there are thousands of open sources available on the Internet. There is also a huge community that supports this language. One of the great things about Ruby on Rails in particular is that you don’t need to own the entire framework to use one of its features. Instead, you can import the modules you need into your Ruby application without taking on the whole structure.
When looking for a Ruby on Rails developer, it is important that the candidate has at least one year of actual commercial work in Ruby on Rails. This is because there is a huge difference between personal projects and commercial projects using Ruby on Rails. Of course, if a candidate is familiar with frameworks like Laravel in PHP or Django in Python, they won’t need that much experience to get up to speed quickly. Candidates who have contributed to open source projects are especially valuable. If you’re just trying to find a developer who uses Ruby as a scripting language, they also need to know the basics of Linux, networking, and other basics of the system.
3. How to test Ruby on Rails skills at the stage of hiring?
Screening can be a difficult process. Depending on the requirements you use, it can be beneficial for both the candidate and the recruiter, or it can be a long-term nightmare for both. Below we’ve put together a series of tips to help you test your Ruby on Rails developer skills.
3.1. Technical Screening of Ruby on Rails Skills Based on a Resume
Before taking any skill test, it is important to see how much experience your candidate has with Ruby on Rails in commercial applications. It is also worth looking at what other languages the candidate knows. This is because candidates familiar with other modern MVC frameworks may have a looser learning curve. It is also worth checking if the candidate has made any contributions to open source projects. A developer who has used Ruby without Ruby on Rails or other frameworks often has a deeper knowledge of the pure fundamentals of the language, which is a big advantage.
Ruby on Rails – Essential Glossary of Terms for IT Recruiters
If you have read up to this point, you will probably increase your vocabulary. Here is a list of important terms you need to know about Ruby on Rails.
- Frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Sinatra
- App Server: Unicorn, Puma, Passenger, Thin
- Testing gems: Rspec, Sinatra, Capybara, Cucumber, FactoryBot, VCR
- Ruby versions: Rbenv, RVM
- ORM: ORM Mongoid, ActiveRecord
- Code review: Rubocop, SimpleCov, RubyCritic, rails_best_practices
- Authorization: Devise, OmniAuth, CanCanCan, API or WS Grape, WashOut
- Background job processing: Sidekiq, Resque
Can names be used as synonyms?
RoR stands for Ruby on Rails. You can also often hear Ruby on Rails short for Rails. It’s important to note that Ruby on Rails has a special relationship with the Ruby framework. Unlike frameworks for other languages, you hear more about Ruby on Rails than Ruby itself.
What certificates are there and are they valuable?
You may see some certifications such as the Ruby Association Certification for Leading Programmers. In truth, companies don’t ask for them. In fact, being active in the community or writing a Ruby on Rails talk is more valuable than any certification a candidate holds.
The situation is slightly different with junior candidates and interns. It is better to have a university degree or at least a course certificate than to have no formal experience at all. At the same time, the main thing is their skills, and not the diplomas that they possess.