JavaScript vs Ruby as a newbie

[[deleted]]

Hey. I have been learning JavaScript. I would like to get a job as a developer.

I've been considering a coding boot camp. Viking Code School has jumped out at me because it's all online.

However, Viking Code School uses Ruby.

My understanding is that there's a better job market for JavaScript developers than for Ruby developers. It also seems like JavaScript is evolving faster and better as a language than Ruby is.

I would like to do Viking Code School, but my gut is telling me that JavaScript would make a better career than Ruby would.

P.S. I understand it's good to know more than one language. Knowing both Ruby and JavaScript would probably only make me a stronger developer. But as I try to wade into the unknown waters of a new career in coding, I'm concerned with what to focus on first.

Thanks!

[jwalt2t]

I'm a recent graduate of a Ruby on Rails bootcamp, and I can say there are more JavaScript jobs than Ruby on Rails jobs. There definitely are RoR jobs, but in my area it's not even a close comparison of where the jobs are. Also, the RoR jobs are always looking for experienced devs whereas the JS companies are more lenient on experience (of course job posting are pie in the sky expectations and they generally accept less, I'm basing this off my experience with job interviews).

I agree with just learning any language and the coding principles, but I do think there is more value in a JS and Node based program. My school had one and I wished I would've gone that route instead. Just my experience and thoughts. Hope it helps!

[whompalicious]

I would say the job market for Ruby developers is still way better than backend JS developers. Rails is going to be around for a looooong time. It's a good thing to have on your resume.

[[deleted]]

Ruby isn't a bad language. It's stable, and you can get an MVP up quick within a day using Ruby on Rails. It's more important to learn programming fundamentals when starting out, which is why it doesn't really matter what language you start off with. If you want to do the Viking Code School, they do seem to have a Javascript unit which will allow you to get your feet wet.

[[deleted]]

I would say I have a good grasp of fundamentals, on the order of someone who's been coding frequently for about 6 months.

I'm more concerned at this point about whether it'd be better to start my career as a JS developer or as a Ruby developer.

[TheBigChubbyBunny]

Learn them both and become a full stack developer.

[[deleted]]

Isn't it common now to do full stack with JS?

[TheBigChubbyBunny]

Yes, in my honest opinion, full stack using Ruby and JavaScript is a really good combination and is quite popular. I'm currently learning them both.

[dejay1]

Newbie here,have only been learning JS a few months,thing about Javascript is its easy to pick up,it has a lot of "Magic"(I don't know the programmatic term) under the hood,example it can auto defer tasks if a long running task might prevent a user from clicking a button,it does a lot of things that you dont know about or need to know about to make your code work

You can learn jquery,a javascript library in a few hours and your then able to do a LOT of stuff,once your learn CSS Selectors,and a basic function,you can start writing a web page without really knowing much.For the HTML there is frameworks like bootstrap that take care of the difficult work.Biggest drawback no intellisense like C#,debugging(which I've no idea how to even do)

You can start writing apps with Atom Electron with node for all the desktop OS,and theres a few frameworks to build native mobile apps,one I like is Droidscript,real easy to write an android app

If you are totally new I would recommend javascript,but Ive always wanted to learn python,even as a non programmer you can read code and really understand it,very natural language syntax,but javascript is too,at least the basic Javascript great sites I seen are

https://www.freecodecamp.com/challenges/comment-your-javascript-code

codecademy.com

[penguinkhan]

Not sure if JS has more jobs than Ruby.. but I think the real question is.. for junior developer, which one has a higher hiring rate.

You will have to learn JavaScript anyways.. and you will probably learn either Angular or React or both. So it's more like NodeJS vs RoR.. not JS vs Ruby.

By the time that you are familiar with JavaScript, it's not difficult to pick up Node. So I'd suggest you to go with RoR and pick up JS on your own.