The Future of Ruby on Rails in Our Coding Bootcamp
The most successful software developers are nimble, able to continuously grow and overcome new challenges. And that’s important, because the field of software engineering is constantly changing, sometimes quite quickly.
At Launch Academy, we know how important it is to prepare junior software developers for the current job market—and that means following trends to meet market demands. As technology progresses, certain programming languages and frameworks tend to fall out of favor while others rise in popularity. As a coding bootcamp committed to helping our students succeed, it’s our job to keep up.
As technology progresses, certain programming languages and frameworks tend to fall out of favor while others rise in popularity.
What’s the latest buzz in the software community? There’s been some talk for a while that Ruby on Rails is on its way out. And it’s not just gossip—we’ve validated that through our own conversations and relationships with hiring managers across the country. Ruby on Rails is becoming less relevant, and we’re taking that feedback seriously as we build our bootcamp curriculum for future cohorts.
The Lowdown on Ruby on Rails
The fact is that the overall perception of Ruby on Rails—a back-end programming framework written in Ruby–is changing, and the focus among coding bootcamp students and hiring managers is shifting to Node.js and React. (More on that later in this piece.) As for why Ruby on Rails has become less popular, there are a few key factors to consider.
You may remember that back in the day, Twitter, which was initially based on Ruby on Rails, would consistently crash whenever there was an influx of traffic. Of course, the framework wasn’t entirely to blame—the platform was receiving crushing volumes of traffic whenever a particular tweet or topic went viral. Still, this issue led to a general perception in the market (in our opinion, unfairly) that Ruby on Rails has a scalability problem.
Over the years, many companies have used Ruby on Rails without adhering to its best practices, resulting in failures. To be fair, over 70% of tech projects fail, so again, the framework isn’t completely at fault. Even so, the fact is that fewer companies are working with Ruby on Rails today than five years ago.
We’ll be perfectly honest with you: we still have a lot of love for Ruby on Rails and consider it a great framework for software engineers who know how to use it. But market perception is a powerful thing, so we’re going where the current trends lead us.
We’re also considering the perspectives of hiring managers. It’s extremely difficult to find engineers who excel at Ruby on Rails. So companies have largely stopped looking for people with this expertise and are focusing on other programming languages instead. That further drives down the value of Ruby on Rails for our bootcamp grads.
What Is Launch Academy Doing About Ruby on Rails?
Our top priority is getting our graduates placed in the workforce, so we take our cues from the job market. While Ruby on Rails is still a marketable skill to a certain extent, it’s become clear that our graduates benefit more from learning to write back-end and front-end code in the same language. JavaScript is the most common programming language, so we are placing more emphasis on JavaScript environments and libraries like Node.js and React.
After careful thought, we have decided that our Fall 2022 (Boston 38) cohort will be the last to work with Ruby on Rails.
Focusing more heavily on Node.js and React will allow us to double down on the fundamentals of programming with JavaScript. Students will have more time to work through the various quirks associated with this ubiquitous language instead of learning two languages simultaneously.
We did not make this decision lightly. When Launch Academy was founded in 2012, our entire curriculum was centered on Ruby on Rails! We introduced more JavaScript-based learning when it became clear that the hiring market was trending in that direction. Then, in 2015, we began teaching React, which has had a massive payoff for our students.
Now, the market is telling us to prioritize Node.js and React, and we’re heeding the call. Node.js and React are varied in their environmental structure, and a more diverse range of companies with different codebases and engineering teams use them. In contrast, Ruby on Rails is a fairly stable framework, so there’s much less diversity in the types of jobs, companies, and codebases available to software engineers who specialize in it.
We’re updating our curriculum to offer students the best chance at success with the broadest array of opportunities, but don’t worry—learning Ruby on Rails will still be an option for those who enroll in our coding bootcamp.
We’re updating our curriculum to offer students the best chance at success with the broadest array of opportunities, but don’t worry—learning Ruby on Rails will still be an option for those who enroll in our coding bootcamp.
How our students can stay up to date with Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is by no means an obsolete technology, and there are certainly benefits to learning two coding languages. If working with Ruby on Rails is important to you, know that we will continue to update our Ruby on Rails curriculum and make it available for independent study in addition to the standard 18 weeks of training in our coding bootcamp.
Plus, our graduates will still have access to both curricula–Ruby on Rails and full JavaScript. As part of our commitment to lifelong learning, we provide all of our alumni with lifetime access to curricula, including any and all updates that we make as our programs evolve.
Want more insight into the Launch Academy curriculum? Check out our syllabus for all the details!