[LRUG] OT: Programming services for businesses in mid-sized towns

Sleepyfox sleepyfox at gmail.com
Thu Jun 23 03:48:25 PDT 2016


I'm contemplating a move to bonnie Scotland, so I'm interested in
others' experiences with working outside the 'big smoke' too.

@sleepyfox

On 23 June 2016 at 11:19, Louis Goff-Beardsley
<louis at infinitiumglobal.com> wrote:
> I’ve worked with a number of mid-sized teams outside of major rails hubs.
> Often companies never get going because the local talent pool doesn’t exist
> for them to draw from as you need Ruby teams in the locality to produce
> developers, and they can’t build a team big enough to produce developers to
> contribute to the talent pool, so it’s a viscous circle.
>
>
>
> When a team does get going, they manage to get 1-2 good developers together
> and they begin hiring and training entry level developers and cross training
> local PHP & java developers. This can work well, but it all depends on the
> ability of the initial developers. I’ve seen it where teams lead by
> developers not quite up to a London standard, have built a team and the
> ability of their home grown developers is below the level that they would be
> at, if they were in a major rails hub.
>
>
>
> Major rails hubs have an eco-system with meetups and the continuous movement
> of developers between different teams which fosters good coding practices
> and processes. When a team is left relatively isolated, this level of
> knowledge sharing with the wider community isn’t necessarily there so they
> can fall a little behind.
>
>
>
> That said, there is always segment of the market of developers who are keen
> to get out of London (cheaper housing, they’ve just had kids, the state
> schools in London aren’t great, too noisey/busy etc) so I’ve always kept a
> few good Ruby shops outside of London/major cities on my books for such
> people.
>
>
>
> Alternatively remote is a viable option. You have to shop around for a good
> job as they are not as plentiful as onsite London roles, but if you’re a
> good developer, you’ll find one within a few months.
>
>
>
> Best, Louis
>
>
>
> From: Chat [mailto:chat-bounces at lists.lrug.org] On Behalf Of Jon Wood
> Sent: 23 June 2016 10:05
> To: London Ruby Users Group <chat at lists.lrug.org>; London Ruby Users Group
> <chat at lrug.org>
> Subject: Re: [LRUG] OT: Programming services for businesses in mid-sized
> towns
>
>
>
> In my experience the businesses you describe need developers for a one off
> project, rather than as a full time member of staff, and go to an agency to
> get that project completed. Mid-sized, non-technology, businesses usually
> won't have anyone in house with any real experience of managing a software
> project, or working out what it is they need - that's why they go to
> external agencies who will help with everything from working out what the
> customer actually needs, through to developing and supporting the software.
>
>
>
> Unfortunately that means most of the work for developers outside of large
> cities is for those sort of agencies. I say unfortunately because you're
> unlikely to see many genuinely interesting projects working for one - you'll
> get a lot of cookie cutter e-commerce sites, and the odd internal CRUD app.
> You're also unlikely to see that application developing over time as small
> businesses buying software think of it in those terms - that they're buying
> a piece of software, rather than taking on something that will evolve over
> time.
>
>
>
> My approach to that is to work remotely for a company in London, so I get to
> work on an interesting long-term project, and mostly avoid having to commute
> in. I'm in the office twice a month for meetings, and working from home and
> coffee shops the rest of the time. The other option is to find a business in
> the area you like the look of, and then persuade them that you can improve
> how they run by building software for them. It would be a tough sell in most
> cases, but if you can find somewhere that bites and then start delivering
> value to them then you've probably got a job for life!
>
>
>
> Jon
>
> On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 at 11:46 gvim <gvimrc at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Given that programming is a skill which is relevant to businesses of any
> size regardless of location why is it that programming vacancies are
> almost exclusively concentrated in the major cities? What do mid-sized
> business in, say, Ipswich do when they need a programmer?
>
> I ask because I plan to leave London in the next few years and live more
> in a more rural area but the prospects of finding work look bleak unless
> you're prepared to commute to the nearest city.
>
> This phenomenon also extends to the choice of programming language.
> According to job postings by title at www.indeed.co.uk once you look
> outside London the relative dominance of Java, PHP and JS is much more
> pronounced.
>
> gvim
>
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