Hi Pat! You are on the mentors list, right? I'm sure I saw your name somewhere.
Anyway, thanks for the input! I very much appreciate your point of view as a speaker (among other things). It's always fascinating to know how people started! (even more when they were not so good in the beginning...) Sadly, I won't be able to go meet up the Montreal Ruby community because I'm not in Montreal anymore. But I will make sure to come over as soon as I set foot in Australia! (and I will certainly look forward to the Rails Camp in November) @Richard, thanks for the advice! I hope you will do great! I know you probably already prepared your trip but here some piece of advice (who knows, if it helps you in any way I'll be happy!): - Bring a french CV in addition to your english one. Some Montrealers don't speak english, prefer to read french, or just appreciate that you try to integrate. - If you don't already speak french, learn a few words at least. Again, it's appreciated. - Bring your coat. The biggest one... Yes, the one with fur in it. You never know what temperature you may face up there... Thanks you all, -- Vince On Monday, May 21, 2012 5:47:14 PM UTC+4, Pat Allan wrote: > > A few things to note: > > * come along to the meetings, come along to the Rails Camps (if you're > planning to be in Australia in November, make sure you grab a ticket to the > Rails Camp happening then when they're released - the upcoming June camp > tickets disappeared in a matter of minutes). They're a great way to meet > other people coding with Ruby, to learn from them, to share things with > them. If there are Code Retreats and other such skill-focused events, > they're extremely worthwhile as well. It may also lead to jobs. > > * Write code - and if Ruby's the focus, then write Ruby code. Find a > little itch that needs fixing, and write code to deal with it (unless it's > an actual itch, then perhaps seeing a doctor is better). The more code you > write, the more confident you'll be about your code, the easier it gets for > contributing to open source projects. > > * As you write code, you'll use other peoples' libraries, and thus get a > better feeling for the styles of code you like - so read the code of those > libraries. I use `bundle open [gem name]` *all* the time - it's often a > better source of information for how gems work than their documentation. > The more you navigate other peoples' code, the better you will be at doing > so, and you'll learn a heap. > > * Once you've got some knowledge of Ruby, and you come across things that > are worth sharing, do so - especially by giving talks at the meetings. I > blame/thank Tim Lucas for prodding me to speak at the very first Rails Camp > - which was certainly a nervous experience. I'm far more comfortable these > days because I've had a ton of practice - almost every time it gets a > little easier. > > * If Melbourne's where you're looking, and you have the working situation > that allows for it, consider working from Inspire9 in particular (and > coworking spaces in general). There's a few experienced and friendly > Rubyists there - Ryan Bigg, Ivan Vanderbyl, Nathan Sampimon, Sam > Richardson, the Culture Amp crew, myself - who are often happy to answer > questions (though granted, I'm away from next week for four months). Also, > there's some amazing Ruby teams in Melbourne as well, should you get the > opportunity to work with them (Envato and The Conversation both quickly > come to mind) - essentially, find smart people and if possible, work with > them. > > > But the first three points I've listed are the key ones, I think: write > code, read code, talk to coders. > > Also: there's some very smart Rubyists in Montreal as well, so you've no > excuses for starting on all three of those right now! > > -- > Pat > > On 21/05/2012, at 6:53 PM, Vincent Bonmalais wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I'm currently looking for any kind of information or help to succeed in > my (crazy) attempt to become a RoR Junior Developer in Australia (FYI, the > crazy part will be explained very soon). > > > > Context: > > > > I have 2 years experience in CakePHP / ExtJS, a Master in Computer > Science, and a good experience with testing using Rspec/Selenium and > deployment using Capistrano. It's just been a few months since I actively > try to work my way around Ruby on Rails. Which means I'm reading a lot, and > making a lot of test code/projects. > > > > No fancy professional rails app running out there, and no outstanding > participation in the open source community yet. > > > > To top it all, I am currently not in Australia... I'm a bit of a > free-man-soul-who-can-live-wherever-there-is-food... I happen to have > already moved outside of my home country (Reunion Island [France] => > Montreal [Canada]) and plan on doing the same once again, which means > moving to Australia pretty soon. (so yes, I speak "le" french as a native > language) > > > > What I want is: > > > > - Finding a job ;)? I would gladly accept any offer (if any), but this > is not the main goal of me making this thread. I am truthfully more > interested in finding out what have made you a competent, > funny-to-speak-with developer. > > > > - As I heard, there is a mentorship program going on out there. I sure > would like to spam all of you with stupid questions, but I would vaguely > prefer if somebody would be interested in teaching me first. Who knows? > Maybe I have something interesting to teach you too. Need a french native > speaker to discuss with or learn the language? Have a problem on a legacy > PHP or CakePHP project? Just ask. (island spicy cooking is still on top of > the list though). > > > > - Participating in the open source community. I read pull requests and > issues on a daily basis on Rails, but happen to not have the skill to > propose anything yet. Maybe you need help on a github project, or have a > nice starting point where a junior can place his efforts. > > > > - Any plan which makes the difference. I've already looked around and > read quite a few tutorials / books on various subjects, which goes from > CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Mobile Programming, Flexible design... To > Cucumber, Rspec, Rails Best Practices (Thanks Code School...), etc. So > maybe you want to add something here, which will really make the > difference, which you hoped you'd knew sooner, an advice or a few words > which changed your ruby developer's life. > > > > - Also, making friends would be a great starting point too ! :) (that > actually may be the most important point during my trip...) > > > > Thanks for reading and have a nice day! > > -- > > Vincent > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rails-oceania/-/xGbRACCutFEJ. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. > > On Monday, May 21, 2012 5:47:14 PM UTC+4, Pat Allan wrote: > > A few things to note: > > * come along to the meetings, come along to the Rails Camps (if you're > planning to be in Australia in November, make sure you grab a ticket to the > Rails Camp happening then when they're released - the upcoming June camp > tickets disappeared in a matter of minutes). They're a great way to meet > other people coding with Ruby, to learn from them, to share things with > them. If there are Code Retreats and other such skill-focused events, > they're extremely worthwhile as well. It may also lead to jobs. > > * Write code - and if Ruby's the focus, then write Ruby code. Find a > little itch that needs fixing, and write code to deal with it (unless it's > an actual itch, then perhaps seeing a doctor is better). The more code you > write, the more confident you'll be about your code, the easier it gets for > contributing to open source projects. > > * As you write code, you'll use other peoples' libraries, and thus get a > better feeling for the styles of code you like - so read the code of those > libraries. I use `bundle open [gem name]` *all* the time - it's often a > better source of information for how gems work than their documentation. > The more you navigate other peoples' code, the better you will be at doing > so, and you'll learn a heap. > > * Once you've got some knowledge of Ruby, and you come across things that > are worth sharing, do so - especially by giving talks at the meetings. I > blame/thank Tim Lucas for prodding me to speak at the very first Rails Camp > - which was certainly a nervous experience. I'm far more comfortable these > days because I've had a ton of practice - almost every time it gets a > little easier. > > * If Melbourne's where you're looking, and you have the working situation > that allows for it, consider working from Inspire9 in particular (and > coworking spaces in general). There's a few experienced and friendly > Rubyists there - Ryan Bigg, Ivan Vanderbyl, Nathan Sampimon, Sam > Richardson, the Culture Amp crew, myself - who are often happy to answer > questions (though granted, I'm away from next week for four months). Also, > there's some amazing Ruby teams in Melbourne as well, should you get the > opportunity to work with them (Envato and The Conversation both quickly > come to mind) - essentially, find smart people and if possible, work with > them. > > > But the first three points I've listed are the key ones, I think: write > code, read code, talk to coders. > > Also: there's some very smart Rubyists in Montreal as well, so you've no > excuses for starting on all three of those right now! > > -- > Pat > > On 21/05/2012, at 6:53 PM, Vincent Bonmalais wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I'm currently looking for any kind of information or help to succeed in > my (crazy) attempt to become a RoR Junior Developer in Australia (FYI, the > crazy part will be explained very soon). > > > > Context: > > > > I have 2 years experience in CakePHP / ExtJS, a Master in Computer > Science, and a good experience with testing using Rspec/Selenium and > deployment using Capistrano. It's just been a few months since I actively > try to work my way around Ruby on Rails. Which means I'm reading a lot, and > making a lot of test code/projects. > > > > No fancy professional rails app running out there, and no outstanding > participation in the open source community yet. > > > > To top it all, I am currently not in Australia... I'm a bit of a > free-man-soul-who-can-live-wherever-there-is-food... I happen to have > already moved outside of my home country (Reunion Island [France] => > Montreal [Canada]) and plan on doing the same once again, which means > moving to Australia pretty soon. (so yes, I speak "le" french as a native > language) > > > > What I want is: > > > > - Finding a job ;)? I would gladly accept any offer (if any), but this > is not the main goal of me making this thread. I am truthfully more > interested in finding out what have made you a competent, > funny-to-speak-with developer. > > > > - As I heard, there is a mentorship program going on out there. I sure > would like to spam all of you with stupid questions, but I would vaguely > prefer if somebody would be interested in teaching me first. Who knows? > Maybe I have something interesting to teach you too. Need a french native > speaker to discuss with or learn the language? Have a problem on a legacy > PHP or CakePHP project? Just ask. (island spicy cooking is still on top of > the list though). > > > > - Participating in the open source community. I read pull requests and > issues on a daily basis on Rails, but happen to not have the skill to > propose anything yet. Maybe you need help on a github project, or have a > nice starting point where a junior can place his efforts. > > > > - Any plan which makes the difference. I've already looked around and > read quite a few tutorials / books on various subjects, which goes from > CoffeeScript, Backbone.js, Mobile Programming, Flexible design... To > Cucumber, Rspec, Rails Best Practices (Thanks Code School...), etc. So > maybe you want to add something here, which will really make the > difference, which you hoped you'd knew sooner, an advice or a few words > which changed your ruby developer's life. > > > > - Also, making friends would be a great starting point too ! :) (that > actually may be the most important point during my trip...) > > > > Thanks for reading and have a nice day! > > -- > > Vincent > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rails-oceania/-/xGbRACCutFEJ. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rails-oceania/-/_VNmxyKrTo8J. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en.
