caboose

We’re launching a new service at work in the next week or so that involves me looking through a lot of job applications: resumes and sample code.

I’d like to tell people right now, upfront, if you’re applying for a Ruby or Rails job, for anyone, there are a few ways of ensuring you get called back. They’re probably fairly simple.

Send some sample code, maybe a link to a project on Github, or a snippet of work you’ve done. Make sure you send the tests for the code. Any tests would be good, and you get bonus points for good tests. If you don’t have any tests, write them.

Don’t worry too much about sending some crazy complex code. Maybe some polymorphic associations (models), some ajax (views), a knowledge of the whole stack (simple controllers), some nested resources. Write a simple todo list application.

It’s not just a silly philosophy. Writing tests – hell, submitting tests with your job application’s code – shows that you’ve actually thought about the code, and that it actually works. You’ve permutated and permeated through the logic, actually think about the various ramifications of the design decisions in the code itself.

Just the pure act of sending tests with your sample code will put you above 90% of applicants, I promise.