On 15 December 2012 23:20, Kevin Y. <lists@r= uby-forum.com> wrote:

HI Peter, thanks for you input.
Just wondering, at the risk of looking naive (and I am at this point),
what are the most important elements of a candidate you look for? Yeah,
I did not expect the 'degree' from the school would help at all. It= was
more of the connections the school may provide.

Well we are a RoR shop and so an ideal candidate would be someone w= ith a few years RoR experience. Having said that none have come forward ove= r the past two years when we were recruiting (maybe London is too much of a= backwater, but I suspect it is that our industry sector - sports data - is= not interesting / sexy enough).

What we ended up with were CS or hard science graduates (mat= hs, physics) with little or no Ruby experience who showed an interest in co= mputing beyond what was needed for their degree. It was this interest beyon= d the needs of their degree that swayed us. One had written some Facebook a= pps just for the hell of it. Another had taught themselves Android developm= ent and created a scientific app that probably only twelve people in the wo= rld will use.

An interest in computing without=A0immediate=A0co= mmercial gain. The ability to teach yourself new skills. A desire to learn.= These things made us want to interview them, the degree (while I would lik= e to say having a degree is not important it does show an ability to study = and think analytically) subject area is of less importance. I'm not sur= e how we would view a degree in Medieval=A0Literature but one guy in anothe= r department has a degree in Theology so I suspect that it wouldn't be = a problem.

So what we are looking for is:

1) The ability= to study and think analytically - a degree is a good proxy for this

<= div>2) The ability to teach oneself new skills

3) The creation of= applications with those skills that have made it into the wild - applicati= on of those skills

4) An interest in computing beyond marketable skills

5) Expe= rience in a commercial computing environment (around 1 year is good)

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But thats what it takes to be interviewed by us, other p= eople will have other criteria. We are a small shop so making a bad hire wo= uld be a real pain but with the criteria I have given here we have not made= a hire that we regret in the slightest.

Ask yourself what adding Flatiron would add to your CV = in light of this. I suspect that by itself it would add nothing.

So the real question is "I have $10k, how can I make my= self employable as a RoR developer?"

Sorry, I have no answer for that.

<= /div>