The Rails Way And Consulting Practice: Mike Hall Interviews Obie Fernandez | RailsConf 2014
🚀 Discover the future of Rails jobs and the impact of training programs on the industry. Obie Fernandez, a seasoned Ruby and Rails expert, shares insights on setting expectations, salary expectations, and the competitive landscape. Don't miss this! 🚀 #Ruby #Rails #JobMarket #TrainingPrograms #ObieFernandez #RailsConf2014
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
The Guest
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Hi, it's Mike with UGtastic . I'm here at RailsConf 2014. I'm standing here with Obi Fernandez who led a panel on the future of Rails jobs. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Your panel, what do you mean by the future of Rails jobs and who was on the panel?
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
Oh, sure. Well, Alan Grant, the co-founder of Hired, was one of the sponsors, sponsored the panel.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Okay.
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
He's a friend of mine and we talked about what we could contribute to the conference and it seemed like a good idea, you know, given the amount of people that certainly would be here looking for jobs or looking to hire people, to have a discussion, you know, kind of a frank discussion about what is the future of our industry, you know, of our job market.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
And where's it going?
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
So, in addition to Alan, I invited Jeff Casimir, who has been involved in a lot of training initiatives and his latest thing is Turing School.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Turing School? Yeah. He's a J3 on Twitter? Yeah.
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
I invited Corey Haynes, who's like legendary and, you know, helps to train people in Software Craftsmanship all around the world. The Global Day of Code Retreat. Yeah, Code Retreat. I thought he would be a useful addition given how much talk there's been about TDD and stuff like that. And, you know, he also trains up a lot of people and he's CTO of a local company in Chicago. And Chad Pytel, who's a friend and fellow author in the Addison-Wes ley ProRuby series. He runs SoftBot and hired people and does apprenticeships. So, yeah, he's a really good friend and fellow author in the Addison-Wesley ProRuby series. He runs SoftBot and hired people and does apprenticeships. So, I thought between, you know, the bunch , we would have some good perspectives on where this market's going. And you also have a history with the Railsway book series. Yeah, yeah. I'm editor of the Addison-Wesley ProRuby series.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
My latest book, The Rails Four Way, is coming out in print in a couple of weeks it's uh out as a beta book on lean pub okay um you know so i mean that's that's that's a lot of people who've been involved with the with the ruby and rails yeah definitely and i had you know i used to i used to own hash rocket uh sold it a few years ago but there you know we had 35 people plus yeah and then in chicago yeah miami exactly yeah jack sonville so so a lot of a lot of experience hiring um and and you know most of us are old- timers in the the ruby and rails world so um you know as we're coming up on nine ten years like it's a good time to look and see okay where we at and that was one of the big topics so what were some of the the uh um lessons or what were kind of materialized during the panel um it was it was interesting to hear um the panelists talk about where um where they see the most expansion and that would of course be kind of like on the junior end right there's a lot of folks pouring into these training programs uh there's a lot of folks coming out of that and and getting hired into shops where you know we hope that they're going to get um adequate mentoring and and be able to work with folks that have more experience and be able to to get their skills um up to where they need to be because i am some of them are having you know anywhere in the world and they're not going to be able to get their skills up to where from a few weeks of training to a few months of hands-on training and we had some back and forth about you know kind of what what do you need you know to crack into to the industry so it was overall the theme positive towards this this this trend or was it more of a kind of like i think it was i think it was i think it was positive with some notes of caution sounded you know and some some notes of
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Is there a risk of association for Ruby if thousands of new bootcamp developers come out, and project managers blame Ruby if juniors make mistakes?
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
Training programs and schools setting expectations correctly helps. Demand for developers keeps growing, with starting salaries of $50k to $70k depending on the market, which is life-changing for many people. On the upper end, salaries between $100k and $200k mean softer factors like culture matter more. That's why I like Hired—they get the salary discussion out of the way first.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Isn't Hired where they curate candidates to set a minimum bar, so employers put terms upfront and developers don't waste time in long interview processes?
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
Exactly. You decide who meets your terms upfront so you don't spend weeks interviewing only to find an offer you can't live on in San Francisco.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Going back to your early history with Ruby on Rails and the Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series—how did you get started with teaching and publishing?
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
I got pulled into it through blogging. I had a well-read Java blog before leaping to Ruby in 2005 as a loud evangelist. Back then the community was smaller, so it was easier to get heard without relying on Hacker News algorithms.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
I know about the pain of getting people out to read and watch!
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
Quality content always wins. Over the years, looking at royalty checks, it's amazing how big the Rails community has gotten. It hit the mainstream exceeding our wildest dreams.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
That's something people in the community might not see—seeing book sales grow year after year.
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
It grows every year! You come to RailsConf and see companies switching over from .NET and Java, tearing infrastructure out to build on Rails.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
With years of publishing experience, how do you view the shift toward ebooks?
Obie Fernandez
The Rails Way and consulting practice
▶ Speaking
If you want to write a book, start by self-publishing an ebook. Traditional publishers like Addison-Wesley, O'Reilly, or Wiley are happy to sign ebook authors and publish print editions. Having a prestigious publisher gives instant credibility and does wonders for your career. book it's a great book it's a great book published uh people start looking to you as an authority yeah well again thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me i really appreciate it my pleasure thanks a lot thanks [Music] ucastic. com you
Critical Insights
durable
"The panel highlights the importance of setting realistic expectations for junior developers and avoiding negative associations with Ruby on Rails."
durable
"Freelancers and regular hires have varying salary expectations, with new graduates often commanding significant increases."
durable
"Experienced developers in Rails roles can earn six figures, but the market is competitive, with limited opportunities for high salaries."