Dr Nic

Need Rails Developers? Hire Australians

There’s been some malarky very recently about “how do I find a lot of mature, awesome Rails developers?” (rails-business + #rmm)

I think this is the wrong question. And the wrong question will lead to the wrong answer.

What is the right question?

The right question can lead to a right answer. The right question you should ask yourself every day:

“Where do I find a lot of mature, awesome Rails developers?”

The right answer is: Australia.

Australia has a bucket load of awe-inspiring Rails developers. And you should hire them all before anyone else figures this out.

What follows below is the uncovering of sensational economically vital information that you, your company, your boss and your client need to know about. Some of it may not seem entirely relevant upon first reading, but if you read right to the end you’ll be emotionally and logically convinced of the answer as I am.

Firstly, let’s explore some solid facts. Then we’ll explore the economic consequences, and finally what you should do about it.

The Facts

The aggregated open source contributions from all Australian Rails developers is tremendous. Most Rails projects around the world would be using a plugin or gem created or maintained by an Australian. I’m sure there are Australian Bureau of Statistics quarterly reports to prove this.

Twice a year we have RailsCamp (next is mid May, see below) at which 60+ developers from around Australia converge on a barn in the middle of nowhere to hack and play Guitar Hero, Werewolf and Mexican.

And Australians are good looking. All of us.

Nearly all Australian Rails developers are part-time magazine models so all our photos are covered by copyright so I cannot reproduce them here, but suffice to say we have “The Look” covered.

We speak “Proper English”, aka “British English”, and we speak “American English.” That’s two languages. Bilingual. We learn these both by watching American TV and British comedies. The latter pokes fun at the former, so its a balanced linguistic education.

With so many extra-curricular speciality boxes already ticked off, you might wonder how we have the time to become exceptionally competent at software development using Ruby on Rails.

You see, our attitude to software development awesomeness is paralleled to our international awesomeness at Sport. With a population of only 21 million super-humans it would be ridiculous to spread ourselves too thinly across many pursuits. Instead, all 21 million of us specialise in one of two professional categories: Sport and Ruby on Rails development.

In the 2008 Olympics Australia came 5th in the medal tally by population (table), and in 2004 we came 3rd (table). In the latter we were beaten by Norway, an arch-nemesis in both Sport and Ruby on Rails about whom I shall discuss later.

If you assume the same model of Sporting excellence has been applied to our Ruby on Rails proficiency you will finish with the same surprising conclusion I diagnosed: you should to hire Australians for your Ruby on Rails projects.

Let’s explore three ways to get your hands on a team of Australian Rails developers: one is gratuitously self-promotional and the other two are not. All will solve your short and long-term Rails staffing requirements forever, so listen up.

Choose your own Australian adventure

Option #1 is to pick the premier Rails consultancy, Mocra. Mocra was created to seize an untapped market inefficiency: Australian Rails developers were spread all over the place doing their awesome work. So instead, Mocra is jam-packed full of Australian Rails developers all in one place. Within shouting distance of each other are Ryan Bigg, Bo Jeanes, Jack Chen and myself.

So when you realise that you need a team of Australian Rails developers to “make it happen” then there’s only one email to ping (rails@mocra.com) and one phone number to call +61 7 3102 3237. Or if you’re in the USA then use: +1 (415) 670-9237.

Option #2 is to pick and choose from several hundred Australian Rails developers, then go to Working With Rails > Browse by Country: Australia.

In Firefox run the following JavaScript in the latest Firebug on the page to only show the “Available for Hire” ones:

var list = $$('ul.entry-list li');
for (var i = 0; i < list.length; i++) {
  var li = list[i];
  if (!(li.innerHTML.match(/Available for hire/))) {
    li.parentNode.removeChild(li);
  }
}

As WWR site doesn’t seem to have any JavaScript libraries attached to it my guess is that $$ is available via Firebug.

Option #3 is to get in contact with all the Ruby on Rails Dev Groups via the RORO sidebar.

Alternately, jump on IRC into #roro and find happy Australians buzzing away.

Why not a Norwegian?

Since Norway beat Australia in the 2004 Olympics “by-population” medal tally, and I’ve gone to excessive lengths to allude that this means all our Ruby on Rails developers are Awesome and Good Looking and Multi-lingual, then shouldn’t I be authoring an article about “Hire a Norwegian?”

You make an excellent point.

Indeed, if I had the time I would definitely espouse the many virtues of Norwegian Rails developers. I’ve been to Norway several times. I’ve met a whole bunch of their Rails developers. There isn’t a Norwegian I didn’t like and several like an awful lot. Do you use Cucumber? Made by Aslak Hellesøy, Oslo, Norway.

But its winter time there now, so its dark, and they hibernate during the winter. Or they go skiing all the time. Or they are swimming in their massive oil reserves. These are hobbies that would never distract an Australian from the job at hand.

Economic Opportunity

The first person to discover an imbalance in the free markets of capitalism wins. I think its called “arbitrage”, or something like it. Not only could you be first to discover the Rails’ equivalent of the “New World” but our currency is in the toilet at the moment.

In the last few months the Australian dollar has lost 40+% of its value against the American dollar. I’m not an economic expert but I think this means that we’re cheap.

What should you do about it?

I may have been too subtle up to this point. If so, I apologise.

Australia is home to a lot of the best Rails developers in the world. Use them.

Should I emigrate to Australia?

Yes. Its very nice here.

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