A few years back, we could consider Ruby still a relatively new technology, providing a different approach to web development. Nowadays, however, it’s already a mature, well-understood language used by companies both big and small. The list of businesses using Ruby includes the travel revolutionaries Airbnb and Couchsurfing, e-commerce leaders like Groupon and Shopify, as well as Twitter, Etsy, Kickstarter, and Github — the list goes on and on.
Data also speaks for itself. According to the 2020 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Ruby is used by approximately 7.5% of professional developers — most of them utilize additionally Ruby on Rails, the most popular framework for the language, surpassing in popularity solutions like PHP’s famous Symfony.
Why use Ruby and hire Ruby developers?
Despite many new solutions appearing on the market, many businesses still trust in Ruby and hire Ruby developers to expand their investment in the technology even more. What drives them towards this? What are some of the most important advantages of choosing Ruby for your next web project?
- Ruby proved to be performing well even in large-scale web projects.
- It’s a mature technology — known problems can be fixed fast thanks to the dedicated community of developers.
- It’s a great technology for prototyping and developing MVPs (minimum viable products) in an efficient manner.
- It works well for scalable projects, such as e-commerce or social platforms.
- Writing in Ruby is significantly faster than in some other, older languages — the language was designed to be simple and to answer the needs and preferences of developers.
- Ruby helps with writing cleaner code, meaning it’s easier for new developers to understand your project from their early days in the company.
Ruby developers can help you leverage the potential of the language and deliver a digital product that’s truly scalable and performing well. Be aware, however, that there are plenty of beginners on the market that could make more bad than good to your project. How, in such circumstances, can you make sure you hire Ruby developers who can truly deliver? Read on our guide below to learn everything you need to know about the process of hiring a professional Ruby developer.
The most important hard skills for Ruby developers
As Ruby development is a highly technical field, you need to hire Ruby developers already possessing a specific set of hard, technical skills. What kind of skills should you be especially looking for?
- Expert knowledge of Ruby
Your candidate should have at least a couple of years of experience in Ruby development and understand all the ins and outs of the technology. This includes all important concepts of object-oriented programming, such as lambdas, inheritance, and more.
- Proficiency with Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is undoubtedly the most popular Ruby web development framework. With nearly 50k stars, around 80k commits, and over 4k contributors, the framework is one of the top 100 most popular technologies on Github. New releases happen often so you can be sure you are working with a solution that meets all the requirements of a modern digital business.
- Experience with other Ruby frameworks and tools
While Rails is surely the leader in the world of Ruby development, there are also other solutions that an experienced Ruby developer should be familiar with. One of the best examples of such tools is Sinatra — unlike Rails, it’s not a full-scale web development framework but rather a minimalistic solution that allows devs to swiftly build small web applications based on Ruby. This makes it an amazing technology for prototyping and smaller projects.
Other Ruby tools worth mentioning are Roda and Padrino (built upon Sinatra). If you hire Ruby developers with knowledge of these tools, you can be pretty much sure that they are the experts you are looking for.
- Good understanding of front-end technologies
Ruby is primarily a back-end language but Ruby developers often have to work a bit on the front-end as well to make the client-side and server-side of a web product aligned. The languages used for the front-end are virtually every time HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. For even more efficient development, you might also want to hire Ruby developers who have previous experience with the exact front-end framework you are/will be using, e.g. React, Angular, or Vue.
Soft skills to remember about when you hire Ruby developers
Hard skills are widely considered a thing that must be checked during the hiring process. The same thing should apply to soft skills. A candidate with a specific set of these can highly impact how your whole team operates and how innovative and efficient everyone is.
What soft skills should you always remember about when you hire Ruby developers?
- Attention to detail
To deliver a product that meets all the requirements and never disappoints technology-wise.
- Desire to learn new things
To approach the development process in a creative way and introduce new, revolutionary solutions to it.
- Expert time management
To easily jump between the multiple tasks that every Ruby developer has to handle on a daily basis.
The thing to never forget about — company fit
Hiring Ruby developers based purely on their skillset might be not the best choice, though — you might end up with a person who, in the end, doesn’t enjoy working at your company and doesn’t deliver results efficiently enough. It might also happen that you end up with a few candidates that seem to be similarly proficient with the technology.
How to solve both of these situations? Look at the following three areas of the company fit.
- Product fit
Hire Ruby developers who worked on solutions similar to yours. Whether you are building an e-commerce platform or a social app, there is surely someone on the market who has already done a similar thing in Ruby.
- Industry fit
Delivering an amazing user experience depends highly on how well its creators understand their customers. If you want to have on board someone who truly knows your user and the technical obstacles standing in the way of a company like yours, hire Ruby developers with previous experience in your unique niche.
- Company culture fit
Boost morale, innovation, and work efficiency across your whole company by building a team of like-minded individuals. First, consider features like the style of management at your company, remote work options, focus on diversity, and other values that you consider important. Then, hire Ruby developers who also think of these as important elements of company culture.
Why hire remote Ruby developers?
While Ruby is indeed a mature technology, the number of Ruby experts in some locations is limited. What’s more, Ruby developers are the 5th best-paid group of devs. According to the 2020 Stack Overflow Developer Survey — they earn, on average, $71k per year. In such circumstances, investing in Ruby might be, at the first sight, quite costly.
How to leverage the amazing features of Ruby despite this? We recommend considering hiring remote Ruby developers. Why?
- They often require a lower salary than their in-office peers.
- The salaries are even lower should you decide to hire Ruby developers from regions like Central Eastern Europe. The costs of living are there lower but the local developers are considered one the best in the world!
- Focus on remote options allows you to access a wider group of talents and hire the ones who are truly the best of the best.
Who else will you need in your web team?
Choosing Ruby can provide you with an amazing technological backbone for your web project — and Ruby developers can guarantee it works perfectly 24/7.
But there are more experts you will need to make sure your product truly wins the market over. From web designers and UX/UI designers to data scientists and AI experts to Product Owners and Scrum Masters — each expert can bring something unique to the table and change the whole industry landscape.
How to hire all these professionals fast? Get in touch with our experts at Ideamotive. We run the industry-leading network of IT talents and can connect you with the top of the top based on your company profile and any unique requirements you might have.
Get in touch now for a tailored selection of Ruby developers and other IT professionals.
