Here at reinteractive we’ve been running some Community initiatives in Sydney, Melbourne and even Singapore over the last year. We began our Ruby on Rails InstallFest last year in April, an evening where we get your laptop setup with a development environment and help you get your very first Ruby on Rails application live on the internet through our tutorial guides. We provide free pizza and drinks, while our reInteractive Developers and some awesome professionals from the Community give their time to help mentor new developers and get them started.
Because of the huge ongoing demand for our InstallFest, we began running our Development Hub event in Sydney. This event is an opportunity for anyone, no matter their Ruby and Rails experience to come along and continue on with our tutorial guides, or code on anything they like. Once again we provide some food, and some awesome mentors in the Community are around to give anyone a hand.
So, Where are our New Developers Now?
Almost a year on, many of our new developers continue to come along to Development Hub and work to improve their skills one month at a time. They know that if they need the help, this is a place they can find someone who cares enough to spend some time on any problem that’s troubling them. More importantly, as the latest developers come through from our InstallFest, others realise that they are no longer the newest, and that they now know more than they used to. This means they not only come along to get help, but to meet and help others with the projects they are working on.
Making the Switch to Rails
At the end of last year, a participant of our June Installfest in Sydney decided it was time to do more for the Community. He had been a developer in another language, but after coming along to InstallFest he decided to make the switch. He has been working hard, coming along to Community events and trying to grab as much time with developers as he can. He has taken his experience learning Ruby and Rails and decided to put some courses together to run at our Development Hub. Last month, he finally made the move from a student to a mentor! We are super proud of Joss!
I was super excited when I received an email from one of our Development Hub participants. He too had made the switch to Rails, and after putting some Rails projects in place and spending his night at Development Hub each month, he is now confident to mentor at our Installfest. Brad is awesome for offering to give back to the community and help our new developers get installed.
And another…One of our July Installfest participants came along while studying web development at TAFE. She has been working hard with mentors from the Community to improve her skills and never misses a Ruby event or DevelopmentHub! Catherine has now too moved from student to mentor!
What Next?
It is so great to see the growing confidence and skills of so many new Ruby on Rails developers. We’re thrilled to be a part of this awesome Community, and have some even more exciting training opportunities to come. Until then, we hope to see even more newbies follow in Joss, Brad and Catherine’s footsteps as we continue to grow and work with the Ruby and Rails Community.
