I taught myself Ruby on Rails--what should be my next app?

[httpness]

I started learning in March, read a book on it, built some practice apps...<p>My first "real" project was http://archive-fb.com, just finished a few weeks ago.

I don't know any other coders, so I really have no idea how far I am in learning or what I should do next. I want to make an app that forces me to learn some new skill(s) that would help me get a job.

Should I try to learn mobile development (and if so, what does that even involve)? JQuery? Just brush up my Javascript/Ajax skills (they are pretty minimal)? Should I acclimate myself to different testing plugins (Shoulda/Factory Girl, RSpec, Cucumber, what have you)? Any particular API that I should really get familiar with? Please don't say I should make a check-in app (hah).

Any info re: what level I'm at, and how far I am from employability would also be awesome. Thanks HN!

[gexla]

Read through sites such as Odesk and Elance for gigs that look like they are doable for your level of knowledge. If you find that you aren't confident for any of them, then beef up on the skills the gigs mention that you feel you don't have.

These are freelance gigs. Honestly, it would be best to get a job first because then you could see how a successful web shop is run, but landing freelance gigs is much easier. The trade off is that you are jumping into a trial by fire situation. Starting out freelancing is way more stressful, more difficult to make a living and you have to manage a lot more things that you don't have to think about as an employee (taxes, sales, cash flow, etc.)

Employability depends on a lot of factors we don't know about you. Important factors include your location, educational background (you would have a lot more options with a CS degree than you would with only a HS diploma,) skill level, etc. It's possible you could get a gig working remotely but it's much more difficult to pick something like this up without experience, connections or a kick ass portfolio of code.

Your best bet at a beginning level would likely be to start out with an internship or a junior level developer where you could work in house rather than remotely. In this case, you could likely get a gig with what you know.

As for what you should learn, make sure you know Ruby well. Try to do things that keep you coding in Ruby rather than spending all your time hacking in Rails. Read code that other people wrote in well known open source applications and make sure you understand what's going on. Learning JS is good as well.

[pdelgallego]

I guess you already understand the very basics of web development. HTML, CSS, CSS positioning, sql ... otherwise learn then in that order.

You should learn Ruby the language.

Gems are essentials in the ruby ecosystem. Do you know how to create a your own gem?

Learn the in and outs of basics things. Create your own minimal authentication plugin? Create your minimal testing framework.

Learn sinatra, a more simple, more fun way to write ruby web applications.

Ruby is a lot about DSL. Create a dsl, or extend the testing framework to be more like rspec or bacon ... or create your own minimal siantra-like framework.

Automatize your tasks, script all your daily activities using ruby.

And many other things that you can do with Rub, but also learn emacs.

[baud]

The first thing i would start by learning is HTML/CSS/Javascript(and ajax, perhaps while learning a lib like jquery). If you are interested in web development (and to learn rails i guess you are) you need the basis of the web. Try http://code.google.com/intl/pt-PT/edu/ajax/index.html for some learning materials. Afterwards, with some pratice you can start by building your portfolio (can be one or many depends on the qualitiy i guess) and then i would say you more than to strap on your job helmet, and squeeze down into a job cannon and fire off into job land, where jobs grow on jobbies!

[httpness]

Thanks for responding. I already know HTML and CSS (not that I have any eye for design - ha!).

I have a basic grasp of simple JS and ajax, and can usually google how to do a given thing...but maybe that's a place to start filling in the gaps. Especially if I could combine it with learning JQuery.

I already have a one-project Rails portfolio, http://archive-fb.com (as well as several easy practice apps that are not deployed).

I guess I was just trying to ask, given the extent of my learning so far (as judged by archive-fb.com + my comments), how far am I from jobdom and what should I do next to get closer?

[paulnelligan]

Hey

I've been applying for jobs recently, and it's a challenge, but not unfeasible. I've found my biggest stumbling block has been lack of TDD or BDD experience, which I've worked to rectify. 'The rspec book' is a good place to start. It helps to know jQuery of course also.

[httpness]

REALLY, moderator? Censoring my title (which previously mentioned being a girl)? And taking away my ability to edit and delete my own post?

[mrduncan]

taking away my ability to edit and delete my own post

Posts are locked from editing/deletion after a certain amount of time - I doubt any admins manually locked it.

Censoring my title (which previously mentioned being a girl)?

I don't see how being a girl is relevant at all to your post. Check out the guidelines for a much more detailed list of what's expected: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[retroafroman]

Why mention being a girl anyway?

[httpness]

um...i don't know why it fucked up the formatting. i didn't type any <p> tags; just pressed enter.