[JimboOmega]

And here I am, a rails developer trying to move to SF, and I only get maybe a few nibbles a week.

I must not be on the right job boards. Or something. Is the meetup.com ruby list the place to go? Someone also suggested changing my location on LinkedIn to SF - however, I am hoping to relocate, but haven't done so yet, so that seems dishonest.

[bicknergseng]

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the author, Matt Mickiewicz, runs developerauction.com. I imagine it is in their best interest to drum up the "talent war," to make it seem like there are no engineers to hire.

My experience tells me that this talent war exists... for the top few percentile of engineers. Where these people are dogged by recruiters and companies alike, there is a sharp dropoff; engineers who are smart but don't win in a tech bingo interview or didn't work at Google/Facebook or didn't go to Stanford get pinged by headhunters but passed over by companies. Engineers who have held jobs at start ups or less prestigious companies, who have authored plenty of CoffeeScript or ObC code for a corporate code base but don't remember how to implement a quicksort or don't have experience with framework x are rejected in the interview phase.

It's my opinion, but I think the "shortage of talent" is really a shortage of patience and mentorship, and a sign of the complete unwillingness of many companies to take a risk on someone.

[JimboOmega]

Funny. Sounds like me. I went to a decent but "wrong" school (UVA), lured by promises of a free ride. I missed my tech bingo interviews (and I've had a lot of them), for reasons worthy of a blog post. My first, for instance, with MS, went wrong because Alaska Airlines got my flight in around 1 or 2 AM - for an 8 AM interview the next day. I know I was not at my best.

I am also totally done with Google - it's just not worth 4 months of runaround and countless phone interviews just to come in and fail because one of the interviewers hates the whole process. And last time they contacted me, they told me to learn either Java or Python and call them back when I did. No thanks. Nothing against Python, but I am not putting that much effort into the chance at another interview. I would totally work for a company that did Python, and learn as I go - I've done that plenty before. (Edit: Oh, and the number of interviews google puts you through just should not be allowed)

I spent a year working on my own startup, which is what got me into rails, but it ran out of runway and I was then tied to the area by romance, and got a mediocre job at a huge company. I am no longer encumbered, but my resume lacks any recognizable names (of schools or companies). I've had a lot of other personal projects that never went anywhere and which earn me no points, but at least keep me in the game. (I should have put them all on GitHub, I suppose, but was too embarassed about their unfinished nature to do so).

I also don't get what the obsession is with CS 201 questions. But I keep my data structures textbook around just so I can relearn how to implement A* or remind myself what the big-O of a B-tree delete is before interviews. Of course, at Google I'd need to be implementing these data structures daily(?). I don't have a big problem with them, it's just an odd thing to be obsessed with.

[rayiner]

What's ridiculous is that these same recruiters are probably blowing up the voicemail of UC Berkeley grads, even though pretty much anyone who could get into UVA could get into Berkeley (in-state preferences aside), and vice versa.

[esperluette]

1. Finish just one project (not to shiny-perfect, just to functionally complete) and put it on GitHub. This is to show you can finish something. It's a huge risk mitigator if someone can look at your code. Nobody's code is perfect, but some code is always better than no code.

2. Put the rest of the stuff up on GitHub, with suitable disclaimers, e.g. "I was working on this to learn X ..." Everyone understands (well, everyone I like understands) that creative people have lots of projects in various stages of disarray.

3. Target a few small/midsize startups, not the super-hot ones, and spend 1-2 hours to learn their product. I would be THRILLED to get an email from someone who said "I love what you do, here's three things I would like to work on with you to make it better, are you hiring?"

4. Put up front your willingness/unwillingness to relo. If you have remote working experience, give an overview of that. "Worked remotely for company X for two years, with daily standups, weekly sprint meetings, monthly 3-4 day visits, and two visits of 2 weeks duration 2x/year." That lets me know what you're up for.

[T-hawk]

> I would be THRILLED to get an email from someone who said "I love what you do, here's three things I would like to work on with you to make it better, are you hiring?"

What's your company? I'd love to send you that kind of email. :) (My email should be in the HN profile)

[esperluette]

oh and one more thing ... have you tapped UVA's alumni network? I went to a good (but "wrong" for the Valley school) & I get calls quite often from people who want to leverage alumni connections into startup introductions. There have to be some UVA people in hiring roles out here!

[andrewf]

If you're serious about moving it's not dishonest - people looking for candidates for a S.F. role want you to appear in their search results! Maybe mention your plans to move, and your willingness/ability to interview onsite or remotely via Skype, in your profile summary.

[JimboOmega]

Well, is LinkedIn even the best way?

I get a fair amount of (local, I live near DC) recruiter spam through it, but it's often nothing to do with rails, and it is mostly third party recruiters.

I'm looking for a startup or small-company environment that actually uses rails. Big ERP jobs are easy to find, but the startup jobs are, despite the supposed feeding frenzy, a little bit more scarce on the ground. (Or else I'm not looking in the right place!)

This article mentions at least a few engineers passing on leads to companies that I might actually want to work for; that's what I'm trying to find.

[HaloZero]

You're more than welcome to apply to ApartmentList, I'm currently working there. We're a fairly small profitable company using Rails in San Francisco. You can shoot me an email at [e-mail] and we can talk there.

[JimboOmega]

You (and everyone else who asked) should have an email and a copy of my resume, assuming the google drive sharing worked.

[mvc]

Did you check the who's hiring thread? When I was looking a few months ago, it was an excellent source of leads, many of them startups.

[doktrin]

When I was in the market, I never saw the kind of rabid attention the OP is describing. Sure, occasional recruiter spam, but no more or less than anyone else.

I can't argue with the OP's experience, but I would take all claims of "super massive talent shortage oh em gee" with a good pinch of salt.

[ericb]

It is real. I've had companies calling me after I brush them off.

I do the interviewing for my current company, and we have had a senior role open for 10 months. We have gotten to the offer stage 3 times but lost nonetheless. This is for a rails role.

edit: my boss makes the offers, and I suspect we have been losing out on these positions while making offers around 130-140.

[bambax]

10 months is a long time... you could try to hire non-rails experts and then train them...?

I'm under the impression that it's not only recruiters but also companies who try to hire people with the exact amount of experience for the position; but a good Python dev can certainly pick up Rails fast, no?

[ericb]

We are open to that. At the moment the source of resumes has been recruiters that were given a certain set of marching orders. It might be worth updating those.

[jonboutelle]

Hey JimboOmega.

SlideShare is looking for Rails devs and we frequently hire people who are moving to the bay area (from Ohio, Texas, France ...)

You can email me at jon AT slideshare DOT com

[cgag]

For what it's worth, I found a job in SF as a rails developer while living in a small town in Georgia via the site mentioned in the article, Developer Auction, and it was a great experience.

[mmanfrin]

Send me your resume, [e-mail].

[pjungwir]

Sign up for the SF Ruby group's mailing list. Write a post that you're hoping to move to SF and are looking for job opportunities. Also try directly contacting any companies you especially want to work for.