Recently Ruby Inside published a list of 11 tips on hiring a Rails developer. Since I’m slowly getting into Rails I thought, “Here’s going to be a list of awesome Rails-specific things I’d need to pick up on!”

Wrong.

All of these tips sans a few can be applied to hiring developers in general. I know that Rails guys like to think they’re special (and Rails is pretty hot, to be fair), but you’re just all software developers. And half of you are going to jump to the next bandwagon that crosses your path anyway.

For example, my company recently hired a few PHP people, and we hit most of these marks (the sane ones) without any effort.

1. Don’t use Monster.com.
   Obvious. Why would you submit yourself to this level of pain anyway? I guess good for Java devs. Gotta be good for something anyway.
2. Poach from other companies.
   A little unethical? Maybe, but if some awesome coder isn’t being treated right at his company, you pull him away and give him what he wants. Then you sit back and watch him finish projects left and right. If you hadn’t thought of doing this, you’re not trying.
3. Don’t hire someone that doesn’t know X.
   Why the devil would you? Unless you’re hiring into an operations position or something similar, but if you’ve got an X Developer position open, your hire list had better only consist of people who know X. Otherwise you’re setting your company up for failure. (Or at least setting that hire up to get quickly fired.)
4. Look for open source contributions.
   These guys are like the Dark Oracle of the Obvious or something.
5. Personal Rails Blog Required
   …? Now I admit a personal coding blog is a good way to determine someone’s personality, but a requirement? That’s like requiring your coders to all wear Thinkgeek shirts. Some of them will, some of them won’t, and it’s no indication of skill whatsoever. Do we like it when we can browse someone’s blog? Sure! Are we going to send them away if they don’t? Of course not, we’re not dumb.
6. Degree not important
   Wow, this whole common knowledge thing is amazing. Our DBA, the venerable Bruce Wayne Nation (whose name must always be fully written for the Batman joke hidden in his middle name), got hired during the first bubble and didn’t finish college. He’s also the most reasonable and practical DBA I’ve ever had the joy of working with. I owe him donuts, too. Crap.
7. Look out for holes in their knowledge
   Now, in Rails, I guess you’re expected to be a graphic designer, a good UI developer, and a client and server-side master. However, again, with any hire (even non-technical ones) you want to look for things they don’t know and make sure you’ve got someone that can cover them, or that they’re willing to learn. Example: I’m not good with graphics. Don’t have an eye for them. So Innova’s got guys that do that, and I’m slowly learning. Slowly.
8. Avoid brand-name superstars
   Would you hire Paul Graham for your lisp project? Well, yeah, but he’d charge you a shit-ton even if he didn’t just ignore your email, so why bother? If he’s interested, he’ll call you. Why do you care anyway? If you have to rely on the noteriety a big name will bring you, then your products aren’t doing their job. Innova? Our clients top INC 500 lists and they get nominated for awards for stuff we did left and right. We’re awesome. Even if you’ve never heard of me.
9. Hire perpetually
   Some companies can do this, some can’t. We’re always looking for good developers to submit applications. We’re not necessarily picking up people left and right but there’s no point at which we won’t seriously consider anyone who passes muster. Some smaller companies can’t bring people on as they please or maybe don’t have enough work to go around. If you can’t stretch the budget, don’t try.
10. Have a company blog
    I tend to agree here. Obviously. There’s just nothing like being able to see everyone that’s working for a company and get a feel for the general attitude of the workplace like reading their blog. Does it attract good developers? Not on it’s own, but it certainly helps the good ones who do their homework about a company feel better about you.
11. Special compensation.
    Who would have thought that developers like to be treated special? Laptops and large screens make for happy devs. Innova gives pretty much anyone pretty much anything they ask for so long as they’ve proven themselves worthy of it. And trips to conferences would be sweet. Now, PHP tends to have poor conferences, at least around here (we’re thinking of running one ourselves, actually, in an attempt to buck this trend), so those are out, but Innova buys us lunch every day, gives us excellent bonuses, and the pool table and beer keg are just gravy on the awesome-train. If your company isn’t going the extra mile in a few areas, they aren’t trying. News flash: creative people working in a creative environment with the tools that make them comfortable output awesome work.

So yeah. Rails devs, you’re not special. Every developer would love those things, and some of us who are lucky actually get most of them. And if these things sound odd to you, fix your companies hiring policies. If you’re a developer that wants some of these things, send us a CV or resume or something, or find a company around you that’s similar. The original RubyInside post might be singling out Rails developers a bit much, but I will say one thing for it: anything that helps companies become better about this sort of thing is a win in my book.