How to find jobs for coding in rails through the Web?

August 3, 2009 12:56 PM

I want to start to do freelance programming in Ruby on Rails. Although I have experiences, in programming, architectures, rails, I would like to get good sources for finding orders. Can you give me advices, how to do it well?

Although I did not code extensively for several years, have experiences with several languages and also have projects behind. Rails is not a too popular language still in the countries I live, neither Slovakia or Hungary... but it seems to me to be a very simple and effective way of creation of web services. So this is the reason for the choice of the language. And the reason to try to freelance is that I have the feeling that getting jobs directly through the Web might become easier.. there is no need for any salesman to sell my work. Which things would you recommend for someone wishing to get at least part of his earning from freelance rails coding? Thanks.

posted by fifigyuri to computers & internet (4 answers total)

You should probably learn the tool before you start selling your knowledge of that tool.
posted by jrockway at 1:50 PM on August 3, 2009

You could try rentacoder.com (who I've used as a buyer).

The other one that comes to mind is elance.com (never used it at all just browsed).

I'm not involved in Ruby so I can't speak about their usefulness for Ruby programmers.

Hope it works out for you.
posted by southof40 at 2:28 PM on August 3, 2009

I suppose you could browse start ups that use Ruby on rails and offer your services... no guarantees, but you don't lose anything by asking nicely!
posted by titanium_geek at 7:57 PM on August 3, 2009

Short term: Set yourself up a profile on Working With Rails -- I get contacted semi-regularly through this by people looking for contractors. Set up a brochure-esque web site for yourself to advertise your services. Then hit up the usual Rent A Coder type places, if you're looking for cheap work quickly, but expect competition and resist the temptation to sell yourself too low.

Medium term: Use your existing contacts (not just technical people) and network. Anonymous matchmaking via web sites only goes so far -- for decent contracts you're going to need to establish relationships with people and become known as a go-to guy for the services you provide, within a certain business/geographical/online community. Everyone I know who makes a living freelancing in this way gets the vast majority of their business through contacts and reputation.

Long term: Establish yourself as a helpful member of the Rails community, and an experienced coder. Participate in the mailing list. Contribute to the Rails project. Write and release a useful plugin or gem. Blog about the Ruby and Rails tips and ideas that you figure out. Create a portfolio of the work you've done.

Generally: Don't think that selling your services over the web will remove the 'salesman' aspect from your work. You still need to sell and market yourself, and you still need to manage your clients and prospective clients professionally. You may not have any face-to-face meetings to deal with, but that doesn't mean you can just lob code over an email wall at people and hope to get paid well for it.
posted by chrismear at 3:48 AM on August 4, 2009