Employment.nil? — The First Toronto Ruby Job Fair

[Pete Forde]

Hey everybody!

If you haven't heard (and my apologies if you're seeing this in
multiple places) we're trying something different: an old-school,
science fair inspired job expo. No computers allowed! This gives
people who might find hiring a Rails developer intimidating the
opportunity to meet the community face to face; it means we can tell
them why we love Ruby, in our own words.

I'm really hoping that a large number of you are able to participate,
although sadly there's only room for about 40 developers. There's room
for students, freelancers, and small companies. If you have a story to
tell, please consider decorating a poster board and helping us put a
friendly face on our amazing Toronto Ruby scene.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Pete

Employment.nil?
The First Toronto Ruby Job Fair

http://rubyjobfair.ca/

What: A technical talent expo, showcasing Toronto's amazing Ruby
developer community... without the aid of computers!
When: June 6th, 2009 — 11am to 6pm
Where: The Gladstone Hotel Ballroom (1214 Queen St. W)
Who: 40 freelance developers, students, and small companies who use
Ruby to create sophisticated web applications
Why: It's a new opportunity for companies, start-up founders and
recruiters to casually meet members of the Toronto Ruby community that
are available for hire

FREE to the public, including potential employers!


After just three short years, the open source (free) Ruby on Rails web
development framework has changed the face of vibrant tech scene in
Toronto. Did you know that:

* there are over four hundred Ruby developers in the GTA, and
counting
* the monthly Rails Pub Nite social event has grown to expect
40-50 attendees
* there are at least 5 Rails consulting companies downtown
* dozens of Toronto-based start-up ventures have been built with
Ruby
* the avant-garde FutureRuby conference happens at the
Metropolitan Hotel in Toronto on July 9-12


In spite of the world economic crisis, software development in Toronto
is booming. There is a constant need for great new talent to hire, and
there's a huge pool of friendly, creative developers looking for their
next opportunity. Tragically, there's no efficient way for these two
groups to find each other... until now. We announce the
Employment.nil? Ruby Job Fair — an opportunity to meet dozens of
excellent candidates with a blend of skills, face-to-face.

Hiring quality technical talent for your project or company can be an
intimidating challenge — even for other programmers. Unfortunately,
many mediocre candidates hide behind acronym-laden resumes and dubious
technical diplomas. If you're building complex, custom software and
something goes wrong, it's often too late to replace team members
without losing momentum. The stakes for finding the right technical
partner are extremely high, as the wrong choice can sink a young
company.

Our solution to this crisis is a return to the basics: this is one day
when we'll leave our computers at home! Participants pay a low, tiered
fee to exhibit a poster. These posters provide an illustrated backdrop
to the conversations which might evolve, and act as a vehicle for the
passion of this community to shine through. These presenters are
artisans who take pride in their tools; they will tell you in their
own words why they love to use Ruby.

Working with someone that "might work out" is a recipe for disaster.
Instead, come to the first annual Employment.nil? and hire based on
personality first.


Employment.nil? is a community-driven effort that is sponsored and
organized by Unspace Interactive Inc., a small full-service boutique
web consulting firm. We're five years old, located downtown at Queen &
Spadina, and we boast a team of ten industry-leading developers and
designers under one roof. Unspace was the first full-time, commercial
Ruby on Rails company. Ruby is our life.

To find out more about Employment.nil?, Unspace Interactive, or the
upcoming FutureRuby conference, please contact:

Meghann Millard or Pete Forde
in...@rubyjobfair.ca
(416) 977-0269

http://rubyjobfair.ca/
http://unspace.ca/
http://futureruby.com/

[Pete Forde]

Hey folks,

Still plenty of room to participate in Employment.nil? this Saturday!

I think that I focused a little strongly on the idea of this event as
a job fair; in fact, most of the presenters are actively working with
Rails today!

I think Andrew Burke said it best, here:

http://www.shindigital.com/site/blogpost/50

Raganwald had some thoughts as well:

http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2009-05-25/rubyjobfair.md#readme

However, the bottom line is that if you're working with Ruby in
Toronto, and you want to get a lot of attention for your work, your
start-up, your projects... why not try a wild idea and see what kind
of social return you get for your $20. Everyone has a story to tell.

Sign up here: http://rubyjobfair.ca/

Even if you stick to the idea that presenting your own poster is for
the birds, the event is free to the public and highly publicized so
please do consider dropping by to check out the scene.

Pete

[Ilia Lobsanov]

Here's my video coverage condensed to 10 minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmWe2FhoIjg

ilia.
http://nurey.com
http://disclosed.ca

On Jun 2, 5:51 pm, Pete Forde <p...@unspace.ca> wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
> Still plenty of room to participate in Employment.nil? this Saturday!
>
> I think that I focused a little strongly on the idea of this event as
> a job fair; in fact, most of the presenters are actively working with
> Rails today!
>
> I think Andrew Burke said it best, here:
>
> http://www.shindigital.com/site/blogpost/50
>
> Raganwald had some thoughts as well:
>

> http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2009-05-25/rubyjob...