After placing hundreds of Ruby on Rails developers in North American companies over the past 15 years, I’ve seen too many business owners burn through their budgets making the same hiring mistakes. They waste months on algorithm puzzles and whiteboard interviews and the worst part? Most of these developers leave within 18 months anyway. That’s not how you find good Rails developers.
First, let’s bust some myths. Rails isn’t dying – far from it. Shopify and GitHub still run on Rails, and they’re doing just fine. The real problem? Finding senior talent. Most experienced Rails developers have moved into management, leaving us with a shortage of senior developers and an overflow of juniors fresh out of bootcamps.
Here’s what I’ve learned works – and what doesn’t when it comes to hiring Ror developers.
1. The Initial Contact Matter
Watch a candidate’s initial communication style – it reveals their future work patterns. Prompt, clear responses with thoughtful questions indicate a reliable team member. Pay attention to email etiquette, response timing, and how they structure their thoughts.
A developer who sends detailed, well-formatted replies and asks relevant follow-up questions early on typically brings this same thoroughness to their code and documentation. This attention to communication isn’t just about professionalism – it’s a preview of how they’ll interact with your team, handle code reviews, and respond to production issues. When we see strong communicators from day one, they usually become our most successful placements.
2. Skip the Traditional Technical interview
When evaluating Rails developers, look beyond their resumes and GitHub profiles. You have to skip the traditional technical interview. Instead, get them to explain their code. I want to hear how they think, how they debug, how they handle legacy code. A developer who can clearly explain why they made specific technical choices is worth ten who can solve algorithm puzzles.
We use a simple three-step process:
Quick chat about Rails basics and database relationships. If they can’t explain an N+1 query, we’re done. This takes 15 minutes, tops.
Then we do a real-world test. I give them actual problems: optimize a slow controller, fix a database query, review some bad code. This shows me more in 45 minutes than a week of take-home projects.
Finally, we check team fit. How do they handle code reviews? Can they communicate clearly? Will they thrive in a remote environment?
3. Transparency on Money Talk and Value
US salaries have skyrocketed, jumping over 20% since 2022. But here’s where it gets interesting – by hiring remote Rails developers, you’re not just saving money. You’re getting access to a global talent pool that’s often more experienced and passionate about Rails.
Think about it: while US companies compete fiercely for the same local talent pool (driving prices through the roof), you could be working with developers who’ve built major Rails applications worldwide. These developers often bring diverse experience from different markets and innovative approaches to problem-solving.
The key isn’t just finding cheaper developers – it’s about finding the right developers at the right price point. Through our remote hiring model, companies typically save 30-40% on salary costs while getting equal or better talent. Plus, remote developers often show higher retention rates when properly managed.
Remember: cheap can get expensive fast. But smart remote hiring? That’s how you get an edge in today’s market.
4. The Million-Dollar Question: Is this the Right Developer for Me?
How do you know you’ve found the right person? Watch how they handle being wrong. Good developers admit mistakes, learn from feedback, and challenge bad decisions. They’re craftsmen, not code monkeys.
The best Rails developers share a distinct pattern in their career progression. They’ve typically faced scaling challenges, managed legacy codebases, and learned from production failures. Their technical discussions balance ideal solutions with practical constraints, showing maturity gained from real-world experience. Top candidates express strong testing philosophies, have experience with different testing approaches, and understand when to apply each. They’ve developed opinions about deployment strategies, monitoring, and performance optimization through hands-on experience. Most importantly, they’ve learned to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, a skill that often separates truly senior developers from those who just have years of experience.
Getting this wrong isn’t just expensive – it’s painful. A bad hire costs about $85,000, wastes 6-8 months of your time, and tanks team morale. I’ve seen entire projects delayed by months because of one wrong hire.
5. Keeping Them Around
Want to keep your Rails developers longer than 18 months? Here’s the secret: Give them room to grow.
Beyond offering competitive pay, you need to foster true ownership—let developers drive decisions, support open-source work, and trust their time management. Micromanagement kills motivation faster than bad code.
Setting aside 20% of their time for code refactoring and improvement projects also helps.
Now, if you are hired remote Ror programmers, you need to build connections through virtual pair programming, knowledge-sharing sessions, and occasional team meetups.
Our most successful clients treat remote work as a strategic advantage, not a compromise, resulting in better code quality and longer retention. Their developers feel valued, connected, and engaged in meaningful work, proving that remote teams can be just as tight-knit and productive as co-located ones.
6. Make the Decision on Your Next Rails Hire
The final step in hiring Rails developers is having a structured decision-making process and making a decision as fast as you can. The best developers are snaped fast.
Create a scoring matrix that weighs technical skills (35%), communication ability (25%), problem-solving approach (20%), and culture fit (20%).
Set up a reference check system that verifies not just employment but also teamwork style and project delivery. Have your existing team rate candidates on technical and collaboration metrics. Document your reasons for hiring or passing on candidates—this helps refine your process over time.
Finally, trust your instincts. If something feels off during the interview process, it usually is. The best hires often show a perfect balance of technical excellence, clear communication, continuous learning, and genuine enthusiasm for building great software.
10 Interview Questions For RoR Developers
Once you know how to hire a Ruby on Rails developer, it’s time to prepare for the interview questions.
1. What is the difference between a gem and a plugin in Ruby?
A Gem is a ruby code installed on a machine. It’s available for any ruby applications running on the same machine. A Plugin is also a Ruby code, but it’s installed in the application folder. In addition, it’s only available for that specific application.
2. What are the benefits of Rails?
- Meta-programming: Rails uses meta-programming for heavy lifting.
- Active Record: It is able to save objects into the database with Active Record Framework. The Rails version can identify the column in patterns to automatically bind them to your domain objects using metaprogramming.
- Scaffolding: Rails can automatically create scaffolding or temporary code.
- Convention over configuration: Rails does not require much configuration.
- Three environments: Three default environments, testing, development, and production, are integrated into Ruby.
- Built-in-testing: This framework supports a type of code, harness and fixtures, that make test cases to write and execute.
3. What is the difference between String and Symbol?
Generally speaking, Symbol belongs to the category of immutable objects, and Strings are mutable objects. String and Symbol act in the same way. However, they have opposite behavior. The primary difference is in the object_id, memory, and process tune when you use them together.
4. Explain how symbols are different from variables?
- A symbol is more similar to a string than a variable.
- In Ruby, string is mutable and Symbol is immutable.
- You need to create only one copy of the symbol.
- Often, Symbols correspond to enums in Ruby.
5. Explain how Rails implements Ajax?
Ajax retrieves the web page from the server. Rails implement Ajax Operation in the following ways:
- Some trigger fires
- Web client calls the server
- Server does process
- Clients receive the response
6. How can you create a controller for a subject?
You can use the following command:
C:\ruby\library> ruby script/generate controller subject
7. What is Rails Migration, and what is the command to create a migration?
Rails Migration allows Ruby to edit the database schema thanks to a version control system that leaves objects synchronized with the running code.
The command to create migration includes:
C:\ruby\application>ruby script/generate migration table_name
8. What can Rails Migration do?
- Create table
- Drop table
- Rename table
- Add column
- Rename column
- Change column
- Remove column, etc.
9) What is the difference between Dynamic and Static Scaffolding?
10) What is the difference between Procs and Blocks?
Block is part of the syntax of a method, and it can appear in an argument list.
Proc has the same characteristics, but they are objects that can be stored into a variable.
Now You Know
Finding exceptional Rails talent requires more than just technical evaluation. Our experience placing hundreds of developers shows that success comes from a comprehensive approach: rigorous technical assessment, careful culture fit evaluation, and clear communication standards. The investment in a thorough hiring process pays dividends through increased retention, stronger team dynamics, and better code quality.
Remember: the right Rails developer isn’t just someone who can code – they’re a craftsperson who combines technical excellence with business understanding and effective communication. Take the time to assess both hard and soft skills, watch for those hidden signals of excellence, and create an environment where developers can thrive. And if you need help, we’re here for you. Our recruitment team has enough resources and networks to find the most skilled remote developer for you in less than two weeks. Plus, we can support you after the ROR hiring process with our HR team, which takes care of everything from legal contracts to onboarding.
FAQ:
According to online job platforms, a Ruby on Rails developer typically charges between $15.00 and $100.00 per hour. The cost can vary depending on the type of contract and the scale of the project.
A freelancer junior RoR developer earns $35-50 +, a senior developer $40-100 +, and a senior between $45-150 +. However, this price range considers different wages based on the country where the developer is based.
RoR became popular among startups because of its development speed. Building the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), this framework allows to ship a product, onboard the first users quickly, and start iterating. In addition, thanks to its library, the framework is suitable for large projects with complex backends and vast databases.
Ruby developers are responsible for writing server-side web application logic with Ruby programming language and web framework Ruby on Rails. Usually, they work on back-end components to support the front-end developers by integrating their web services with the application.
Generally speaking, the most skilled Ruby on Rails developers are usually based in countries like South America (Chile, Columbia, Brazil) and Japan. But truth to be told, you can find your ideal candidate everywhere in the world – at least, with the right tools to set up the hiring process.
