Argthtjtr

As a developer, I would definitely say the answer to your question is "Yes". My career today is still based on "my first job" and what I learned there. However in my case as technologies evolved, I evolved with them and my company supported moving toward newer ideas.

I think what you should really be asking is if this position is open to change, and open to moving toward new technology, or are you going to be stuck in these technologies for years with no path forward to more popular technologies. You should prepare yourself with a good argument for explaining why they should be using xyz technology over the stuff they are currently doing.

If you get the impression they are not interested in upgrading their systems, and your only purpose is to support these other technologies and keep the place running, I'd definitely consider a position change.

You might be looking at this the wrong way around. Unless your country is extremely small (ie Monaco, Luxemburg, etc) and you're sure you know the market well, there are always opportunities in a technology stack.

And then you're one of the few experts on that stack. Being in a niche market means you can charge niche prices.

Of course I don't know your country or your market and I'm just making assumptions. RoR is a fairly well-known stack, and it seems unlikely to me that an entire country would have no demand for it. If you think, however, that another stack will pay better, then of course you should move to that.

There is nothing stopping you from learning other languages on the side. That being said, there are many employers that do not care what languages you know. Many would rather you have the basic skill sets of a developer and the ability to quickly pick up any language than have someone who refuses to learn more but knows the language they need.

Programmers rarely use one stack throughout their careers. In my own I've gone from firmware in C, to back end web services in C++, to pre-iOS mobile phones in C, to Android in Java, and those were just my main platforms. It doesn't include perl, python, Swift, and a variety of frameworks used on smaller projects or helping out other teams.

Don't worry so much about the exact tech you're using. You won't be using it in 4 years. Instead, learn the fundamentals of computer science and software engineering well, those will be valid in any language and any framework. And don't worry about being hired- exact skillset is generally secondary in hiring to overall competence. If I'm hiring a junior->mid level programmer I want them to know how to program, they can learn a framework or language.

You need to take control of your own career.

If you think this is the case (which it might very well be) you need to invest time into learning other languages in your own time. A lot of programming languages are transferable in one way or another. Take a look at the technologies that are being used in your country and get familiar with them.

Once you have done this I recommend you start looking to start off from the "bottom" of another company starting with a more commonly used language otherwise your skillset may not be required in future and you will struggle to find a new job to match your skills.

Acquiring experience in any language is better than not having any experience at all. You're doing software engineering, and whether you are doing it in Ruby or JavaScript or C++, the principles and techniques you are using will directly apply to the next thing you do, in whatever language you do it. Mastering Ruby also makes it far easier to learn other languages, because so many of the concepts are the same. I know a lot of languages, but I don't know Ruby. But give me a day or two and I'll get up to speed. That's how you build a career. Use this first job to get a solid foundation in software engineering. That will get you your next job. Ruby may or may not be relevant in the future, but your experience will be.

Getting experience as a developer is far, far more important than whatever language/framework/technology you happen to be using.

I'd pick a good developer who doesn't know any of the languages we are using over a developer over a mediocre developer who does know the language every day of the week, and twice on Sunday. We found that it is much easier to learn a new language to a good developer than to turn a mediocre developer into a good one.

Having said that, it pays to be versatile. And I don't mean knowing how to program in a whole bunch of programs. Know how to program. Know how databases work (which is more than "I can write some SQL code"). Know how the OS deals with memory. Know IPC. Know how clusters work. Know how to scale things. Know how to do disaster recovery. Etc, etc, etc.

Some of the other answers are very good, so I'm going to answer this from a different angle.

The first people to see your resume/CV are not likely to be the technical managers who would be your superiors, but rather the HR people that don't know that C# is C sharp, RoR is Ruby on Rails, or that "4 years of experience" doesn't mean 4 years of one thing AND 4 years of another AND 4 years of a third thing (in their minds adding up to 12 years experience). Nor will they understand that means 4 years ideally, but 2 years plus another 2 years in something similar is good enough. I've even seen job descriptions where the experience level on a specific technology exceeded the age of the tech, yet HR still expected that much experience in that tech.

The HR dept isn't likely going to understand that Ruby on Rails is similar to X, Y, and Z languages/frameworks/libraries/technologies, so they won't understand that because you know how to OOP in RoR, you have a solid understanding of how to do it in many other languages. I have spent the last 6 years working in C#, which I learned on the job based on my schooling and personal experience in Java (which I started learning in 1996-7), however, I can't get a Java job to save my life.

I also can't get a PHP job either, even though I've been doing that for the past 10+ years on my own. Even with C#, Java, PHP, and even JavaScript all being very closely related, HR doesn't understand how knowing one means you can easily switch to another. They think of all languages being as distinct as spoken languages: C# = Greek, Java = Spanish, RoR = Chinese, etc. It doesn't even matter that spoken languages can be very similar, they just have some misunderstandings due to them not having our experiences.

Then again, maybe my experience has left me bitter, since I also can't seem to find another C# job, either. Personally, I think that's because I don't know all the names of all the techniques I use. I just use whatever works and don't care what it's called. Sort of like playing chess and not knowing that I'm using the "Queen's Gambit", or whatever.

I've also done quite a bit of VB/6/.Net {shudder} in my previous positions, which seems to get me a lot of interest for similar positions almost regardless of how much/little I know. Some tech is like that. If you can find a niche in your area that does RoR when there are few devs to fill the positions, you might have a good lead on a well paying career. That is, if you like RoR.

Your first job doesn't have to define you, but it can be very hard to prevent that. I spent 15 years as a computer repair tech and it took essentially all of that time for me to find a programming job, as I was always looking for a dev job while also looking for a repair job. My first IT job in high school was in computer repair and I think because of that, even though I started a BS in Computer Engineering in college, I couldn't find a programming job even though I learned programming before computer repair.

Maybe this is also part of my cynicism (as well as possibly just based in the USA), but many jobs want a Bachelors degree as a "minimum", even though the job can be learned without one. I've even seen positions that suggest a Masters or PhD, which again the HR department will assume means it's a requirement, rather than a "nice to have". Fortunately, more job descriptions also include "or equivalent work experience".

At my last position, the team lead was a high school dropout yet he had more years professional experience in programming than me as well as was a better programmer because he specialized more than I did. That's even considering that I only have an Associates degree, but over 25 years of total programming experience and in almost 20 distinct languages. (I don't consider MySQL, T-SQL, MS-SQL, Oracle SQL, or plain SQL as different languages. I also lump XHTML, HTML, and HTML5 together, as well as including CSS with CSS3. JavaScript, TypeScript, and ECMAScript are also pooled together, IMO.)

So what do all my ramblings try to conclude? Figure out what you want to do and then do it. Don't get side tracked by what others want you to do. They don't know how the future will unfold any better than you. At the same time, don't be afraid to try several different things, as that's really the only way you are likely to find out what it is you really want to do. Also, don't give up if things don't immediately go the way you want them to. If you can't find a job in the language/technology you want right away, keep at it and you'll get there, eventually. And yes, at the same time, don't be afraid to get a different job, too, as you still need to survive to get the job you want, which may not end up being the dream job you expected, anyway.

Maybe I'm helping, maybe I'm not. I won't know until you tell me one way or another. I'm fine with that. I didn't intend for this to be a resume or a rant, but it's the only way I can seem to tell this story, even after rereading it 3-4 times.

Good luck and I hope you have better luck than I have had!

Rails isn't that uncommon in other places, you should be fine if you're willing and able to get remote work, or if you're open to moving.

If you aren't, learning a new technology that does what Ruby on Rails does shouldn't be too difficult. Over all you should be fine. I'd still bring this up with management though. My guess is that they probably don't know that what they're doing is making them a lot harder to work for.

First off, I very much agree with @Jay.

My first language was last upgraded 15 years ago, but it also introduced me to OO and SQL. Those principles, with some varied syntax, led me into other languages I still use today. The point is that it’s not necessarily bad if your current language of choice won’t be around or widespread in coming years, but make sure you understand the underlying principles and the connecting points. For Ruby/RoR, that may be to really understand the lifecycle of requests, the HTTP protocol or details of how to configure the web servers.

And yes, as you can, advocate for more mainstream technology.

Adding two more points (compared to the other answers):

1. Hiring managers tend to see your most recent work and discard previous experiences, so your concerns are justified. However, if you bounce around a bit (to other technologies) early in your career, you can prove that you are a generalist and a polyglot; that you are capable to adapting to what is put in front of you. That's a plus




2. Now, if you work for 5 or 10 years in a single technology, get several promotions and several raises, you are much more likely to get stuck in whatever you've become an expert in. The reason for that is that you are being paid a premium for being a specialist. No one will want to pay that premium salary if you are working in a new technology.

So, as @twyxz said, you get to take control of your control. If you are a noob, getting that first job is very important. It doesn't set your career path in stone. As long as the economy is healthy, it's reasonably easy to find your N+1 job once you have your N job. Getting the first job is more important than worrying about the strategic implications of taking that job. Now that you have that first job, start thinking about strategy.

A well-run, forward-thinking company has a plan for meeting its skills requirements, and that plan includes training for specific technologies. That way the company does not rely on its new hires to cope with changes in technology.

My company hires entry-level talent. All they care about is the aptitude for coding. They have a test that measures your ability to see patterns. Many of our new hires are do not have a degree in software development, but in some other field (including one lady who's degree is in chemistry).

HR here don't care what technologies you know, because we have training programs for each (I had to do the C/C++ training program when I first started), and at times we acquire a product from another company (usually when we acquire the company) and the new developers learn whatever technologies are used for it.

As for you, adopt the view that your career is in "software development" and not "ruby on rails development".

Yes you do get stuck if you stay with that technology for like 2 years or so. What I would suggest is to get experience in multiple technologies at the start of your career. This way you can get labelled as a general programmer rather than a RoR or a C# person. By the way, what's the problem with RoR? It is in-demand.

One more thing that matters in this context is the nature of the technology. RoR is a web framework so getting skilled at it means you get increase your skills regarding web frameworks - and you may be able to use some of those skills later if you switch to another web framework. For me, I am stuck at working on a specific rule engine which is too specific for a particular client. So for me getting stuck at that rule engine is bad but it might not be that bad for your case.