Stephen,

What might make sense is to take on a few lite-weight freelance
projects to learn Rails better and get more familiar/comfortable with
how it works. To me, it makes a lot of sense for you to work with a
group that knows Rails well for a bit so you can fast track with a
team that doing things the right way.

In the past both Josh and I have worked with "Rails" teams that used
Rails, but fought it tooth and nail because they didn't REALLY know
Rails, they just hacked the hell out of it.

If you are interested, I would be happy talk with you about working
with us on a project at Handcrafted (http://gethandcrafted.com).

Shoot an email to hello@gethandcrafted.com

Take care,

- Adam

--- In Houston-RoR@yahoogroups.com, Stephen Huey <stephenhuey@...> wrote:
>
> Hello everybody, I met some of you at the meeting in August. I'm
considering leaving my J2EE job at an investment bank for something
more interesting to me, so right now some possibilities that are on
the table are a Java-related job, .NET and Sharepoint consulting, and
Openlink Endur (energy trading software platform) consulting. I only
have experience with the first one. Last week I also whipped out a
10-hour Rails project as part of the application process for these guys:
> 
> http://www.richappsconsulting.com/
> 
> I only started reading up on Rails and playing around with it in
July, and because my 5 years of programming experience since
graduating from Rice have been mostly focused on Java web apps, it
seems like it could be hard to convince employers to take me on as a
Rails developer anytime soon. Plus, Austin seems to have more work
than Houston. I already tried to get Mumboe in Austin to give me a
telecommute position, but they aren't open to that sort of thing. 
> 
> The Java-related position I mentioned above already made me an
offer, and they aren't the first company in recent months to make me
an offer below what I make now. If it were something I was very
excited about, pay wouldn't be as much of an issue, but taking into
account all aspects of the position, I'm just not sold on it at this
point. 
> 
> So, I was just wondering if any of you have any suggestions for how
to transition into Rails development. As I've pointed out, I've never
changed programming ecosystems before, and aside from scouring
Craigslist and Guru.com, I'm not sure of any better ways to go about
it (aside from being open to relocation). 
> 
> Thanks,
> Stephen
>