What's the Des Moines area Ruby Scene Like?

[Kris Luminar]

Hi Everybody,

First post here, so I hope I'm not breaking any etiquette.

I'm a Ruby on Rails Developer currently living in Seattle, Washington. My wife was recently offered a fantastic job as a tenure-track professor in Indianola, Iowa, so we'll be moving to Des Moines to be a little closer to her work.  =)  We'll be moving sometime between now and August, perhaps the first week of June. 

Before I head out, I would like to know what the Ruby/Rails scene is like there. Generally, I'd like to know about the local Ruby community and how I could contribute. Specifically, I'd like to know:

1. How active is the local community?
2. How large is the local community?
3. What's the job market like?
4. Are there a lot of career opportunities?
5. Are there many companies in the area are using Rails?
6. What are the salary ranges for mid level Rails Devs?

From what I could tell from a bit of online research, a lot of the local software shops are .NET; I'm hoping that's not the only game in town.

My wife and I are both thrilled to be moving to such a nice city -- I hope I'll find opportunities as awesome as hers.

Cheers!

Kris L

[darrinholst]

I've never been to Seattle, but I image the Des Moines ruby scene is similar...except with less people interested in ruby and more jobs in the insurance industry.

The local user's group has been going strong monthly for 5+ years (could be 6, can't remember).

I'd estimate the turnout has ranged from 5 - 20 depending on the month.

There's a local job board at http://www.iowaruby.org/jobs/ that has jobs on there from time to time. (you can deduce what the job market is like for rails based on that I think)

Relative to the rest of IT in Des Moines, no, I would say there are not a lot of opportunities for full time rails dev. Some, not a lot. The good news is that cost of living is low so if you can find remote work that would be my ideal situation.

Not sure on salary ranges.

As for .NET being the only game in town...there is Java too...and COBOL;)

[Kris Luminar]

Hi darrinholst,

Sorry for the slow reply -- it's been crazy busy between working, trying to move, taking my Rails class at night and looking into buying a house.

> I'd estimate the turnout has ranged from 5 - 20 depending on the month.

That's a pretty good turnout.

> There's a local job board at http://www.iowaruby.org/jobs/ that has jobs on there from time to time.

Good to know!

> As for .NET being the only game in town...there is Java too...and COBOL;)

COBOL still exists?

Hopefully I can meet you at the next meetup. I'm taking a trip to Des Moines this month and am hoping to be able to be there on March 19th (which I think is when this group meets next).

[matt...@gmail.com]

Hey Kris and others, just an FYI, there is a sister group to Iowa Ruby called DSM Web Geeks that focuses more on the broader spectrum of web technologies. There is an annual social event at Goodsmith's, a local Ruby focused biz, tomorrow (Monday) night. Details at http://www.dsmwebgeeks.com/2013/02/web-geeks-annual-social-event-is-march-4th/

Everyone here is welcome to attend. There will be food, prizes and a variety of speakers. There are other events throughout the year that focus on learning and sharing. For example we had a hands-on class on learning Git, some Javascript coding sessions and the likes. It dovetails in nicely with the Ruby group.

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