[lambda_lord]

Stripe has a huge existing Ruby codebase that powers a lot of the dashboard and more. But there’s also a push towards Java for new services.

Notably, Stripe does not use Ruby on Rails: instead there’s a few homegrown frameworks used for routing, storing data in a database, etc.

[altdataseller]

Why the push towards Java for new services?

[newlisp]

A robust performant multithreaded runtime with a big set of enterprise libraries for the big boys.

[mpd]

That explains the JVM, but why Java, specifically? JRuby offers everything you mention.

[newlisp]

Jruby is anything but performant when compared to Java, there's overhead.

[0x640x6D]

Speculating but aside from the enterprise ecosystem advantages it's hard as hell to hire senior ruby devs.

[square_usual]

Really? The Ruby ecosystem has been around a long time (Rails itself has been around for over 17 years!), so I'm surprised to hear there is any difficulty hiring highly experienced Ruby professionals.

[0x640x6D]

It just isn't the language that people learn as their first language (via college or bootcamps). Plus it's not a gaming, data or machine learning language so it's not the kind of language that people come to from some other motivation. So I would say it hasn't had great organic growth for 5-7 years. That's practically a generation of programmers at this point.

I think all the big shops have most senior ruby devs locked up. If one has any meaningful rails and ruby experience under their belt they can stick their thumb out and land a job immediately.

[kache_]

If you look at all the job postings for Stripe, you'll notice that none of them require you to know ruby and expect you to be able to learn it on the job.

[0x640x6D]

Right, which would indicate that they have more or less given up on appealing to ruby devs specifically. I work at a ruby only shop and we are the same way. I would say only about 30% of the candidates I interview have any ruby experience and of those, maybe 50% have recent experience.

We would prefer to hire talented ruby devs, but they just aren't there.

[kache_]

what does talented even mean? If anyone is a not a shitter they should be able to be productive with ruby in the order of weeks

[0x640x6D]

Yeah, duh, that's why we hire devs with any talent -- like I said. I'm not sure what you are pushing back against?

The contributions of a senior ruby engineer in a large, complex rails codebase will be immediate and will have a long tail over someone that has no experience in rails or ruby. This seems self-evident to me. It's just that there aren't enough of them.