Are there really Rails devs out there getting work who don't know what ActiveRecord is or what gems do? That's a bit shocking to me. Maybe it'll be easier for me to get work than I thought.
I think that might just be a really, really bad recruiter. Of the couple dozen or so developers I've been involved in interviewing I've never met a single one who was that clearly incompetent. And that includes a lot of junior candidates.
I definitely do not believe anyone is hiring devs that bad at $100/hr. That makes me deeply suspicious of the recruiter. Hiring for Ruby jobs can be difficult but it's not _that_ difficult.
I was at a Ruby meetup tonight. Out of maybe 20 people there, 6-8 said their company was hiring. I'm in Houston, which isn't exactly a hotbed for the Rails world. Given enough demand and enough developers who talk a good game, that's not that surprising.
Also this info was coming from a recruiter. It's entirely possible that's what the staffing firm was billing, in which case the developer wasn't making that much bank.
The only places they are getting hired are likely the ones that have hr do the hiring. I doubt there are too many places where someone who didn't know what active record was could get a job.
I've done some interviewing and it's pretty surprising how bad most candidates are for technical positions.
I once was told to help interview some potential developers to work with me, but I was then told I wasn't allowed to "ask any very technical questions." (and their threshold for "very technical" was very, very low)
Of 3 people who were hired (one, then another a two years later, then another a month after that) the 3rd one turned out well.
Are there really Rails devs out there getting work who don't know what ActiveRecord is or what gems do? That's a bit shocking to me. Maybe it'll be easier for me to get work than I thought.