Hiring Ruby on Rails developers is a time-consuming process. Yet it’s vital for a healthy and maintainable engineering team. Whether your company is made up of just a couple or even dozens of developers, your technical team plays a huge role in your relationship with clients and the growth of your company.
In the last 20 years, we’ve interviewed, hired, and worked with quite a few Ruby on Rails developers- some of the best in the industry, in fact. We’ve refined our process (though it evolves with each new hire), and we have a few tips to share.
Here’s how we interview and hire the best Ruby on Rails developers for our team.
Step 1: Identify the Ideal Ruby on Rails Candidate
To find the best candidate, we want to have a clear understanding of what this role will involve. Typically, we’ll consult our previously-written job description for this role or use it as a guide to creating a new one, and make adjustments where needed. Then there will be a discussion between the hiring manager and a member or two of the Leadership Team to define the role, its contribution, and the skills needed- both technical and non-technical. Next, we’ll establish how to measure success in this role. Once we’ve identified our ideal candidate, we’ll document this role to create a new job listing.
Step 2: Document and Describe the Ruby on Rails Developer Role
Once we’ve determined the skills required for the role, we’ll write the job description to share across our various channels. Here’s what we include in our Ruby On Rails Developer job description:
- Job Title: The position we’re hiring for
- Description: A summary of the role
- Core values: We like to share the qualities that we value individually and as a team
- Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization
- Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully
- Previous experience: Relevant experience to this role
- Benefits, Salary, Equal Opportunity Employer Note: The good stuff
Here’s an example of our most recent job listing for a Senior Ruby on Rails Developer.
Step 3: Establish a Hiring Team and Hiring Process
Now that we’ve created a job description, we build a hiring team to participate in various parts of the interview process. This includes the Hiring Manager, a few team members, and our Leadership Team spread out over three to four interviews. Yes, we’re very thorough!
Step 4: Where to Find Ruby on Rails Developers
When hiring ruby on rails developers, we’re ready to get out there and find our perfect match! But where exactly do we go to look? First, we’ll post the listing on our website right in the middle of our Planet Argon Culture Page so candidates get a good idea of the cool cats they’d be working with. Then we’ll share our listing with our networks, including the Ruby on Rails community we’ve been a part of since 2004, and post on our social channels. Also, because we’ve launched our new Recruiting Services Program, we’ll pull applications from our recent pool of applicants.
Step 5: Collaboration Interviews
We know from experience that the best candidates will not only have outstanding technical skills, but also fit in well with our team’s values and communication style. That’s why we like to include a “Collaboration Interview,” where a candidate talks with a couple of our team members. During this part of the process, current Planet Argonites will ask a few key questions, and we encourage candidates to ask us questions too! This creates a space for engagement and conversation.
Every company has a unique culture, and it’s important that a candidate shares certain values and interests so that team integration happens more organically. This interview helps us discover if a candidate has the potential to support other team members, collaborate on projects, and participate in group events and conversations.
Step 6: Role Interviews
If a candidate seems to fit well with our team culture and core values, they’ll have the opportunity to move on to the next step in the interview process: the Role Interview. This is where the interviewer will go over the more intricate aspect of the role. Here are some aspects we discuss in this part of the hiring process.
- Rails and general development proficiency
- Ability to communicate technical ideas and details
- Past RoR experience and development projects
- Adherence to best practices
- Experience working with legacy code
- Approach to technical problem solving
Step 7: Put together an attractive job offer and begin onboarding!
When a candidate has made it this far, it’s time to make an offer. Our Leadership Team will put together an offer letter that includes salary, benefits, and a few more details. We’ll conduct a background check to ensure we meet the requirements by our clients, and once everything is signed, sealed, and delivered, it’s time to enter the onboarding phase.
Hiring Ruby on Rails developers requires a lot of thought, organization, clarity, and communication among the current team. It’s also a fun way to get to know other developers in the community, and we always look forward to the opportunity to talk with fellow Ruby-ists!
Are You Hiring Ruby on Rails Developers?
Because we’ve met, trained, and worked with so many talented engineers over the years, we have a pretty solid process for finding the right person for the job. We’re now piloting a new service where we can apply the same vetting process that we use to help you and your organization with your recruiting needs. We both know that not everyone that you could hire is paying attention to the job boards at the moment, so we can help bridge that gap. Click the button below to learn more.
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