Hello there,

Like many in the list I am starting with Rails and seriously trying to get
some contract work for it.

Coming from PHP / ASP and web design background, it has not been easy.
First because Rails takes time to master, and second because it also takes
time to get new customers who need web development, rather than web design.

Unfortunately this is the typical chicken and egg dilemma; on the one hand
you need new customers to trust you do Rails development for them, on the
other you have no previous Rails customers so it's tough to convince new
prospects!

Any advice on this subject... I do have some ideas but would like to know
what has worked for you.

Best Regards,

Jose L. Hurtado
Web Developer
Trumpet Interactive <http://trumpetinteractive.com/>
Toronto, Canada

make a project that you can use as a business card and as a portfolio
piece on your own time.

Or contribute to an Open Source Rails project.

--
Eric Davis
Little Stream Software
http://www.LittleStreamSoftware.com

On 9/15/07, Eric Davis <edavi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Write a bunch of small, useful, applications that get the respect of
the community.  Team up with a kickass designer and release it as
open-source.  Your code will get you work.

Contribute to Rails itself.  Contribute to the documentation
(shameless self-promotion, I'll even pay you a respectable wage).

It shouldn't matter what technology a website is built with -- and
it's a hell of an easier sell today than it was 2 years ago.

Finally, you might like to subcontract for other, established
developers -- you don't need to acquire or maintain clients, and the
money's good enough AND  consider that you're not dealing with stupid
clients, only people who know what they're doing.

Courtenay

Hey Courtenay,

Work for established web developers is something I'd truly love to do
as I am a Rails and Web development lover but am going to school full
time.  Where's the best way to find Rails developers that are looking
for more Rails developers?

Thanks,
Rick

On Sep 15, 8:47 pm, Courtenay <court3...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 9/16/07, Rick M. <rick.marti...@gmail.com> wrote:

Don't over-commit yourself.  I've hired many Rails developers to
subcontract over the years and the ones who already had other
commitments (work, school, life) couldn't maintain any sort of
reasonable contracting*.  Even the ones who swore black and blue that
they could.  Usually they'll last about 4-8 weeks before imploding.
Sad but true.

* It may also be my crappy management style.

That being said, getting work from other developers can follow pretty
much the same rules; get noticed, have some solid code opensourced, or
just get networking.  Join your local ruby/rails user group, start
posting on the various mailing lists, helping the noobs.

Courtenay

First of all thanks to all of you Aaron, Eric and Courtenay for the advice.

I was thinking of an open source project or a relatively simple web
application to practice and at the same time, show the skill I am attaining
with Rails.

This project is clear way to show that you know your stuff.

I would like to add a little more suggestions that I recently heard from
Peter Cooper, creator of the RubyInside <http://www.rubyinside.com/> blog
and several Ruby apps. In an
interview<http://podcast.rubyonrails.com/programs/1/episodes/peter_cooper>with
Geoffrey Grosenbach, he outlined what I would say is a personal PR
strategy to get ahead in the Rails marketplace, below some highlights of
what he did and said:

1. Start a Blog, Relevant to the Rails Community
"I began Ruby Inside (blog) as an unintentional serendipity... a good way to
promote a Ruby book." (which would come 10 months later)
"What's gonna happen when I release this book and no one buys it,I was kind
of thinking from the start how am I gonna sell this book"

2. Write a book ; )
He wrote an introductory book related to Rails, Beginning Ruby.
I would add that even a free book, or a documentation effort like Courtenay
suggested could also help.

3. Write a simple app, free or open source or both.
Peter wrote two free apps and made some money on premium services or ads.
Not much, but in the end he sold <http://snippets.dzone.com/>
those<http://www.feeddigest.com/>and actually made some cash.  At the
time of the interview he had sold one,
and now he sold both.

So many ideas to work with...

But at least I know have a way forward.

Courtenay, I have some free time, so paid documentation work... mmm why
not?!

Thanks everyone again, and have a great weekend!

Jose L. Hurtado
Web Developer
Trumpet Interactive <http://trumpetinteractive.com/>
Toronto, Canada

-

On 9/15/07, Eric Davis <edavi...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Best Regards,

Jose Hurtado
Toronto, Canada