How To Find A Remote Job As a Ruby on Rails Developer?

So you are trying to find a job in Ruby on Rails. Unfortunately, many guides on “how to get a job in...” don’t share that very info which can really level up your searches.

It's not even about this particular technology; the real problem is getting a junior role at all.

This is a classic chicken and egg problem where companies want to hire experienced developers, but how do you get that experience if no one wants to hire you.

But there is good news as well. Namely, learning Ruby on Rails can pretty much guarantee that you will find high-paying jobs because the demand for good Ruby developers is very high.

Whether you're self-taught, graduate of a training course, or have a college degree, when you're new to web development, getting your first job can be tricky.

You know you have the skills to do the job. The question is, how do you report this to hiring managers? How do you impress during the interview phase? How do you make sure you get interviewed at all? Where to find that very Ruby on Rails remote jobs? What path should I choose?

In this guide, we'll provide you with all the necessary stuff to find a job as a Ruby on Rails developer.

What is RoR

Should you choose Ruby on Rails when deciding on what framework to work with?

Basecamp, GitHub, Dribbble, Airbnb, and Groupon said yes and got it right. In recent years, these world-renowned companies have successfully implemented solutions built on Ruby on Rails.

With clean code, object-oriented syntax, efficient development practices, strong community, and profitability, this framework will undoubtedly become the number one for your career growth.

Brief look at Ruby on Rails

First, let's discuss Ruby on Rails in terms of numbers:

• More than 1,012,633 live websites have been created using this technology, BuiltWith reports;
• On GitHub, more than 4,000 programmers contribute to the development of Ruby on Rails;
• The framework has over 48,000 stars on GitHub;
• According to codementor.io, the average hourly rate for a senior Ruby on Rails developer in North America is $121-140 per hour;
• In 2021, RoR got 7.04% of the votes for the most commonly used web framework.

For more info, please, check out State Of Ruby On Rails Web Development At The Beginning Of 2021.

The journey to becoming a Ruby on Rails developer - fast track

The way you study depends on your skill level. A beginner will likely choose an entirely online course or programming school, while an experienced developer will enjoy listening to podcasts or watching a YouTube tutorial on a particular RoR issue. In the first step, we advise you to honestly assess your current abilities.

If you are a beginner, we recommend that you choose an education source that also offers the opportunity to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Learning English is beneficial because Ruby's syntax is very similar to English and you will become more attractive to a future employer.

You should know that every programmer needs to keep up to date with IT news, and that can be tricky. 

To cut long story short the fast track consists of the next steps:

1. Arm yourself with uncanny consistency to endure everyone fighting against you and uncanny knowledge to be able to code logical and well-structured things, not just being an ad hoc troll. 
2. Be consistent;
3. Contribute;
4. Learn daily.

Tools that might come in handy:

• Terminal/Command Prompt
• Sublime Text - Text Editor
• Git and GitHub - Version Control System
• Heroku for hosting
• Amazon Web Services - Cloud
• Linux OS or Mac OSX is preferred by programmers.

Gaining knowledge is one thing, but one day you will have to go through the hiring process. Here building up a prominent portfolio is a must.

The next finding of the most suitable Ruby on Rails remote jobs goes. Let’s consider some of the most apparent paths below!

Standard remote job hunting ways

Remote hiring implies working via the Internet, hence we have to distinguish which web portals are out there. Honestly, there are multiple sites that provide Ruby on Rails openings:

#1. Remote work portals

Remote.co was founded by Sarah Sutton, who is also the founder and CEO of FlexJobs. Unlike Flexjobs, Remote.co focuses exclusively on remote work opportunities and does not feature teleworking or working from home. The site helps to find remote work online in categories such as data entry, training, and healthcare. You can also filter the listings to find remote entry-level, freelance, high-paying, or part-time jobs.

WeWorkRemotely claims to be the largest remote work community in the world with over 2.5 million monthly visits. This site has an interface that also helps to find RoR remote jobs. In addition, the site has a variety of resources for remote employment, such as a list of remote companies and a post on the top 100 remote companies hiring employees.

Remotive offers a remote job board, a remote job community, and a newsletter with a complete list of remote jobs. Only carefully selected junior Ruby on Rails remote work opportunities are presented on the site. Remotive also displays any location restrictions that are on each job listing to find remote job opportunities.

Remojobs is another remote job site that tags all of its job listings. You can filter vacancies posted by recruiters by experience level (junior, senior, etc.), by job type (sales, marketing, design, development, etc.), and even whether they are technology-related or not.

Ruby on Remote aims to gather all five continents by connecting remote RoR devs with remote companies. Their virtual bulletin board provides a robust list of open remote jobs. Ruby on Remote also empowers users to create an account and participate in their online community, where employers have the opportunity to learn more about the specific skills, interests, and experiences of potential employees.

Pros and cons of remote work portals

Pros

• Always a ton of companies looking for remote employees;
• Stability in case of being hired by a company;
• Ability to switch between different employers in the search for the best one.

Cons

• Permanent struggles to apply to the right company;
• No growth in terms of a career ladder;
• The hiring company mainly isn’t interested in your professional growth;
• It’s hard to find trust in people you have never seen IRL.

#2. Freelancing portals

Upwork is a huge marketplace for freelancers. Companies like Dropbox, Airbnb, and Microsoft have used it to hire freelancers. The site features job openings in many categories such as administrative support, engineering and architecture, sales and marketing, and customer service. 

Fiverr is a freelance marketplace where you can find many remote opportunities. The site is focused on "gigs" - small quick jobs such as editing audio recordings or transcribing videos, but there are still many developer jobs. 

PeoplePerHour.com is a UK-based service. This is a fairly large resource where you can find some Ruby on Rails remote jobs.

You can take an order in two ways - either by responding to a published project or if the customer contacts you directly.

Freelancers can filter projects by geography and connect with local employers. You can simultaneously use the service both as a customer and as a freelancer.

PeoplePerHour has curators who check the quality of freelance work. They act as intermediaries between the customer and the contractor. After choosing a freelancer, the client needs to make a deposit to start the project. Payments are protected by an escrow contract and PeoplePerHour Wallet system.

PeoplePerHour allows freelancers to submit direct offers to a customer-created project. To do this, you need to leave applications for projects. Only 15 free offers per month can be sent.

FlexJobs has over 50 remote job categories, ranging from freelance to part-time to full-time jobs, and remote careers range from entry-level to executive. The service offers many types of vacancies at different levels, from junior to senior level. However, in order to find work at FlexJobs, you need to create an account. And it will cost anywhere from $14.95 per month to $49.95 per year. However, it might cost a little extra because FlexJobs goes through all of its job listings, which can save you time in the long run. (And as we all know, time is money!)

Pros and cons of freelancing portals

Pros

• You are often hired quickly. Most freelancing portals’ clients are ready to get started as soon as possible;
• Getting paid is easy: Sending invoices and accepting payments can be a hassle for a small business or independent contractor. One of the main advantages of such sites is that payments are built into the system at the touch of a button.

Cons

• Their fees are quite high: in addition to the fee for submitting proposals, freelancing portals also charge a percentage for each project based on your total bills;
• It's hard to get your first client: There are so many competitors on freelancing websites. And it can be frustrating to get hired for your first project;
• Most clients still have smaller budgets: clients on freelancing portals will have significantly lower budgets than those on your personal network;
• No promotions;
• No stability;
• Permanent race for new tasks.

#3. Talent acquisition services

Toptal focuses on connecting business consultants with freelance corporate commitments. As a consultant, you can only focus on remote jobs, and you can be choosy about working on projects (and clients) that you are passionate about. Whether you're leveraging your code writing expertise or a genius in building projects, Toptal's site and model are handy for digital nomads and freelancers alike.

ScalablePath is a technical recruiting agency with thousands of freelance software developers and designers from over 138 countries. ScalablePath offers each client personalized support throughout the entire recruitment process, hand-selecting candidates according to project requirements. Before that, all clients are selected for both technical and soft skills. 

Adeva is a global talent network that brings together organizations with distributed technical talent around the world.

Using a community-driven approach, they bring some of the brightest talents in the industry to work, enabling organizations to quickly scale engineering teams. Unfortunately, due to a huge number of competitors, it's quite hard to find a job for a rookie dev here.

Pros and cons of talent acquisition services

Pros

• Freelancing here means high financial rewards, time flexibility, variety of jobs and projects suitable for all developers.
• You are not alone in your search for a job, an experienced employee will accompany you every step of the way.

Cons

• There are too many devs compared to projects, only one project for 10 developers. Hence, the employee must compete with others to be the best fit for the project. Moreover, if you are a new freelancer, you should not consider talent acquisition service as a start.
• Such freelancers, like other freelancers, do not receive any benefits or job security;
• You cannot set your hourly rate, you must ask the recruiter to increase/decrease the rate. This is not normal, but acceptable.

Protip: As an analytical techie, you should rack up 10 opportunities, apply to all of them and measure how many you convert. Then iterate on improving your job conversion rate if necessary.

IM Talent Network is bridging the network gap between web developers and career opportunities all over the world.

We are here to help professionals connect with each other, share resources, and develop their careers. Ideamotive Talent is a network of tech professionals who value working flexibility and professional growth.

We provide our members with access to mentoring, skill development opportunities, and a strong peer network to support professional growth and advancement. 

IMTN also helps partners to attract, recruit, retain, and promote technical and business talent by building pipelines and developing an internal culture.

5 Reasons Why You Should Join Our Talent Network

Less time searching, more time working

The Ruby on Rails remote jobs search process can be long and drawn-out, with many interviews, conversations, and re-checks. Even if you find a great opportunity, you can repeat the same search process a few months later when your project is complete.

At Ideamotive, we vouch for you to our customers. To do this, we check and evaluate your experience, offer feedback that we think will help, and introduce you to new features that will be suitable as they appear in our pipeline.

Since we work on Slack, our jobs are posted directly to the respective channels. Looking for new features in Magento or other related areas? Complete your profile, contact us and join your discipline's channel. Less time looking for work - more time learning new skills or having fun. This is what we all do - to make work more flexible, fulfilling, and fun.

Stand out from the crowd

Over the years in the digital space, we’ve found that companies work with those they trust. When you join our talent network, you are pre-qualified for the open positions identified in Ideamotive.

By simply registering and going through our verification process, you validate your skills to one of our clients. Our clients began to trust these people as if they were their employees.

We try to keep this process to a minimum, but nevertheless, in order to give clear recommendations, it is necessary to carefully study all participants in the network. From there, you will have access to mentoring, support, and collaboration with 500 colleagues.

Develop your own network

When you join a network of reputable talent, you have access to hundreds on Slack and thousands on the web in general. Developers, web designers, project managers, and other digital professionals with diverse backgrounds are ready to ask questions, discuss collaborations, or even team up on a project you might need help with. Have a quick question about backend development? Or maybe want to ask about the best hosting providers for a Ruby on Rails app? Contact one of our experts on the IM Slack channel and start a conversation.

Our valued members are always happy to offer advice, understanding, and support. We are a friendly, open company. We pride ourselves on our ability to build relationships with skilled professionals and develop strong relationships - whether between clients-employers or members.

Join our inner track

At Ideamotive, you can also access opportunities not listed on job sites. More than half of job seekers report that they prefer to look for work on the Internet. The second most popular method? Inquire about vacancies from a friend or trusted colleague. We keep a close eye on our current and potential clients and often find out about their needs first. This means that they contact us first before posting on LinkedIn, Indeed, or even on their own website.

Through our unique relationships with agencies and organizations, joining our talent network can even help transform your skillset into a new field. For example, a developer who might want to move on to project management or a performer. We have helped many in moving the web into related areas. We believe in doing what we love. For some, this may change over time. We're here to help.

A little help from your friends

When working as a freelancer, people may feel lonely and lack the support system that is typical of traditional conditions. Even if you work under a contract for a large company, you are still a “contractor”. Being a member of IM provides a large and varied support system. Whether you're looking for a simple coding solution or a few extra hands, we're here to help! 

We know team partnerships build confidence, increase access to knowledge and facilitate the exchange of experiences. We believe that participating in a talent network means not only helping you get gigs but also helping you scale and develop your skills.

Get a dedicated Career Manager to help you grow your professional career, get the full admin support, and let us take care of your online profile. 

Become a partner

Finally, while this is not one of 5 reasons to join us, we find that relationships are everything in the workplace. 

Our talent network is a place to explore opportunities, share ideas, meet new colleagues, and join exciting projects. As we bring members from all over the world to collaborate, work, and communicate, we are committed to helping contractors grow their businesses and those looking for full-time jobs to find the employer of their dreams. 

Want to know more? You are only 3 steps away from landing that perfect RoR job:

Join us!

Standard remote RoR job hunting ways vs Ideamotive Talent: the ultimate comparison

Summary

We are moving the future of technology forward by creating space for tech professionals to gather, grow and develop while being a conduit for companies to attract these talents.

Our vision

• Build an active community for tech and business professionals to communicate, share information, and learn through social events, thought leadership, and formal networking events.
• Provide professional training and resources to help our members develop their skills.
• Help companies reduce hiring time and increase retention of diverse talent by connecting them to a carefully curated lineup of tech professionals. We also help them build a robust strategy for diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

Our main focus is matching developers with projects, taking into consideration the right technology, their industry experience, and company culture fit. So you'll be in the best hands around when it comes to the effective matchmaking process.

Looking for amazing projects for international startups? Join the Ideamotive Talent, get matched with awesome projects, grow your career, and work on your terms.

Don’t hesitate to contact us right now. The best projects are just a click away!