I have been struggling a lot lately in trying to decide my next steps as I finish Free Code Camp’s Front End Developer Certification. I figured I would blow through it quickly to get my legs back into web development after spending a good amount of time in C++ trying to build a 2d game engine.
While it has been fun and I have got a friend started on programming using FCC’s easy to learn curriculum finding a job still has me perplexed. After reading/listening to Joshua kemp’s “No Degree, No Problem” I have been doing a lot of review in Ruby on Rails. I find many articles out there about how good the community is and how it's “exploding but has a lack of developers” making it easy for find Junior Developer jobs in the field. I see a lot of people refer to the image below from indeed showing the rate of growth compared to javascript.
I left Node.JS out of the first one so we could see the other 3 well enough. As you can see below once we add in Node.JS the other ones are barely on the map. Now this could be attributed to Node.JS being new and the fact it come from zero to Ruby on Rails level in terms of % of job market posting in just 2–3 years. However, it brings up the question. Is Node.JS better to learn over Ruby on Rails for Junior Developers?
This isn’t helped when you look at percentage of matching job positions. Javascript is not only much higher, but Node.JS has passed Ruby on Rails.
While I love to see so much growth in Ruby on Rails, it seems it would still be easier to get a javascript based job. Although it’s important to remember this is all meta data so this doesn’t distinguish Junior/Mid/Senior level jobs and is more of just a keyword search than anything.
However, it stands what are the jobs in my area (Bloomington, IN, or anywhere in Indiana) while there seems to be a good amount of web development jobs none really talk about backend. A quick look on indeed.com shows there are some Junior Ruby Developer positions in Chicago although that would require an out of state relocation, something I’m not apposed to, just takes a lot more planning than a 50 mile commute. Of course Josh Kemp brings up the importance that jobs are found via networking not job posting. This is true for my current job, as it's not advertised it was just knowing the right person, same with my friends job in a data center. Meetup.com have tons of both Javascript and Ruby on Rails meet ups in the near 75 miles that I searched, meaning their could be a good Ruby job base in the state I’m not able to find by searching.
So what's better? I’m honestly not sure. Of course there could be many “it depends”. I will continue to research positions and trying to talk to the few developers I know. I find many more sites online that point out Ruby on Rails is the best for full stack, and Node.JS is more of an emerging market, but still uncertain. If you have any thoughts to add, or articles that I might have missed please feel free to post them as I would love some more insight as I prepare to finish up the current leg of my journey and prepare for the sprint to hopefully the finish line.