I had a meeting with a former client a few days ago, and they mentioned it was "hard to find Rails developers." I responded first by saying I disagree, and then went on to say I think they are looking in the wrong places and for the wrong type of people.

I told my former client that they need to find someone passionate about what they do. Right now, if you are involved in the Rails community, you are more than likely passionate about what you do. And if you do freelance work like I do, that passion matters.

I would much rather hire someone who is passionate about design or development than a "scripter" or "coder" who punches the clock and is content using what Microsoft or Sun give them. When I hire other developers to work on projects with me, I look for passion. The same goes for designers.

My former client was posting their Rails development jobs on Monster and a few other mainstream job sites, and was surprised that all they got in response were form letters from code sweat-shops in India or Romania. I told my client to look at sites like jobs.rubynow.com, the 37signals job boards, and other sites that attract the readership of passionate developers.

I'm not sure they liked what I had to say, but it needed to be said. I also told them that having a good developer - someone who understands Rails - interview prospective developers is key. Interviews are always difficult, interviewing a prospective developer is even more difficult, and having a non-technial person - who does not understand Rails - interview someone for a very technical position is a recipe for disaster.

Also, if you are hiring a Rails developer and they are using Windows, you had better start looking elsewhere soon. It all comes back to passion. Passion for the tools used to develop web applications. Ruby on Rails is a tool. The Mac and OS X are tools. They happen to be the best tools out there right now to develop web applications. If you are hiring a Rails developer, you need to find someone who has passion for their tools, who lives and breathes their work. That is the type of person you want to hire.

I'll stop before I descend into much more of a rant. Hopefully you understand at least part of my passion. I'm available for work. Get in touch with me - give me a call at 719.966.4313 - if you are looking for someone who is passionate about Rails and their work.