A famous web app framework built atop the Ruby programming language has been actively leveraged for over 12 years. Within this timeframe, it has come through ups and downs. Ruby on Rails was on a roll when companies like GitHub or Airbnb had chosen their apps’ framework. Meanwhile, many talk about the RoR’s untimely demise when Twitter replaced it with a Java-based solution. Someday, any mature technology will come to the point when it becomes outdated and unwanted on the market. The way to this dead-end may last decades or be as immediate as a flash. For that reason, each Ruby on Rails developer wants to know how far their breadwinning technology is from being extinct in the industry and what career opportunities should be expected in the coming years. Let’s figure it out.
Some stat as of 2018
Figures used in a particular context can explain the state of affairs and even forecast the future. On that account, it’s better to look at some numerical information to understand what’s going on with Rails so far.
According to BuiltWith.com, almost 1.5 million live websites are created using RoR. This figure is now unachievable for the framework’s most known competitors like Django or Laravel. GitHub also shows Rails’ dominance over other web frameworks regarding the number of contributors (over 3.5K) and related activities. As a sign of these achievements, Ruby’s fall to the 17th position according to the TIOBE index is a fly in the ointment. Moreover, this object-oriented language has never been known for its high popularity.
To sum up, Rails’ statistics are well-promising and show no sign of probable decline or loss of demand.
Career opportunities
The job-related issues such as talent overabundance, low salary, or poor demand for RoR programmers – nothing of the kind are observed for now. The framework is sought-after among startups and rising businesses due to being a cost-efficient solution capable of ensuring rapid time-to-market. These characteristics may not be essential for building enterprise software or huge projects. They’re still fundamental for small and mid-size business owners striving to launch a web app fast and for low costs. So, let’s discover the career opportunities for those who chose Ruby and its framework as their principal domain knowledge.
Job market
Suppose that some good RoR engineer is looking for a job. The worst scenario for them is to face a lack of job offerings at all. On the other hand, having too many options means bigger career perspectives, but there is evidence of a talent shortage on the market. As of the end of 2018, Rails is one of the most much-in-demand frameworks throughout the US. If we narrow down the focus on startup cities like San Francisco, we’ll get more mentions in RoR job postings compared to its alternatives represented by Django or Spring. For sure, job searching services may differ in the exact numbers, but, in general, Ruby on Rails experts are in high demand. We checked it using LinkedIn and got almost 1K job offerings. Moreover, versatile experts predict its growth in the future.
Salary
If we take globally, an experienced RoR programmer’s hourly rate ranges from $40 to $160. Different web sources show different values. For example, the average yearly salary, according to Simplyhired, is $122K, while YouWorth insists on almost $138K. StackOverflow’s latest survey says that Ruby is associated with the highest salaries worldwide (10th with $64K). Ruby experts earn more ($100K) in the US, but it’s $15 grand away from the title of a top-rated programming language, which Erlang and Scala share.
At first glance, both market demand and salary rate show that building a career as a RoR engineer is full of perspectives. But is it from a long-run viewpoint?
