Panel: Charles Max Wood

Guest: Jérémie Bonal

This week on My Ruby Story, Chuck talks with Jérémie Bonal who works at Ekylibre. He is a web developer and he has been using Ruby for the past few years now. They talk about Jérémie’s background, Ruby, Ekylibre, past/current projects, and so much more! Check it out!

In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

0:00 – Get A Coder Job!

1:05 – Chuck: We are talking with Jérémie Bonal today. Tell us who you are!

1:21 – Guest: I am a web developer and I’ve been writing Ruby for about 2 ½ years now. I’ve been writing code now for 5 – 6 years.

1:54 – Chuck: I love writing in Ruby, too. Let’s get into your story. What’s the Ruby community like in France?

2:23 – Guest: It’s pretty dispersed in the town that I am living in right now (Bordeaux). We meet up through Meetups and chatting about everything and drinking beer. There are more Ruby communities in Paris.

3:23 – Chuck: Maybe one day I will make it out to Bordeaux. My grandmother was French and I thought it would be cool to see the different parts of France.

3:45 – Guest: Cycle through France.

3:53 – Chuck: My grandmother grew-up near Lyon.

4:02 – Guest: France is pretty small compared to the U.S. You can fit several towns in a single trip.

4:21 – Chuck: I do have a funny connection. When I lived in Italy for a few years I would show them a map of Utah and they thought CA was close to UT.

5:03 – Guest: Yes, it’s hard to conceptualize. From what I’ve heard it could be a road trip for Americans. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around that.

5:40 – Chuck talks about Disneyland and family topics.

Chuck: Let’s talk about you and your Ruby story. Are you hiring and where can they go?

6:20 – Guest: Yes we are! You can find us on our website.

6:57 – Chuck: Let’s talk about you – how did you get into programming?

7:00 – Guest: When I was young with calculators. My friends made games with it and it blew my mind. I tried to make sense of what the key words meant. Nothing worked and I got real puzzled. I went to college and in the first semester you didn’t choose a major – you just do a bit of everything. You learn some engineering, chemistry, math, etc. so people could find what they really wanted to do. I worked in Python and worked with graphs and all of those concepts. This is when I got into it. I planned on going into chemistry, but all my friends were getting into programming. They kept saying: keep doing programming. I caved-in and the rest is history.

9:02 – Chuck: What languages have you worked with?

9:09 – Guest lists the different languages. Guest started with Python 2.

9:30 – Chuck: We started with Java and C++. It’s interesting to compare the differences there. As we are talking about this – a lot of people think they NEED a computer science degree and others say: nah! I am curious what advantages did it give you?

10:12 – Guest: I was disillusioned about the whole thing. They taught me a lot but I didn’t know anything valuable. I learned Ruby and Ruby on Rails. I started building web apps and I got joy out of it. I thought I didn’t have any purpose with my new degree. I noticed in the conversations with my colleagues (who don’t have computer science background) I saw that I could solve patterns and I had a better vocabulary. I saw that I could apply it and that felt good.

12:37 – Chuck: Interesting. I found my degree helped with the low-level stuff and helped me to solve problems. I learned on the job, though, too. I feel like if you need the structured environment of a college environment – go for it! Or do a boot camp, etc.

13:21 – Guest: I learned Ruby and Ruby on Rails through a boot camp. I wished there were boot camps for my computer science courses. To solve MP this and that; getting into the basics and building a sold foundation in computer science in a short period of time.

14:06 – Chuck: I’ve thought about creating that curriculum.

14:36 – Chuck: It’s an interesting conversation to have. I think the boot camps will force the universities to adapt.

15:01 – Guest: Yes, the disconnect is pretty staggering. It must be kind of similar.

15:20 – Chuck: You graduated and you learned Ruby through boot camps?

15:29 – Guest: I felt like I didn’t know how to do anything constructive or valuable. I meld around for a while – I went to be an English teacher and other jobs. I found out about a boot camp in Bordeaux and I went to that. It was going to teach Web apps.  I thought taking it would make my CV stronger. It was 9 weeks of Ruby, Ruby, and Ruby! Then the last 2 weeks building an actual app. I fell in-love and found my passion.

16:55 – Chuck: That mirrors my experience well. A friend introduced me to the Lamp Stack and then it clicked that this stuff is “cool.” Sounds like you made the same connect that I did.

17:46 – Guest: Yes, that’s how it went for me, too. The last few weeks we made an app and it was a travel app. It blew my mind that we made it in only 2 weeks and that people could use it!

19:05 – Chuck: Same thing for me. We were answering emails out of Thunder Bird, and we kept stepping on each other.

20:18 – Guest: I think my favorite is: I have a problem right now, and I can solve it myself. I can build a basic tool that will make my life easier.

20:40 – Chuck: Yep, that’s what I am doing right now. I am building in scheduling and all sort of stuff. The app is awesome and it feels like you have a super power.

21:10 – Guest: Yeah, it does whatever you want it to do.

21:20 – Chuck: What projects have you worked on?

21:22 – Guest: The project I mentioned about the travel itineraries. Then I worked with some classmates on another project around pharmaceuticals. It was cool to solve a problem. Then I played a small web player. I tried Raspberry and Raspberry Pi, and I was trying to build...

Since then I have been working with my current company. I was missing some parts of college b/c one of my projects was a graph gem.

I tried other things, too.

24:45 – Chuck: I know that Hanaumi is popular in the European market vs. U.S. market.

25:00 – Guest.

26:00 – Chuck: I have some theories as to WHY that is.

25:26 – Guest: I have a friend who moved to Elixir and never tried Hanaumi.

26:42 – Chuck: I have been playing with Elixir somewhat. I wanted to understand what people were experiencing.

27:02 – Guest: I liked the idea that...

27:48 – Chuck: What are you working on these days?

28:01 – Guest.

29:53 – Chuck: When you find the position of CEO or my job you learn a lot about that stuff. When you are running a business you learn about marketing and other business topics. You talked about replicating a gem. What did you learn through that process?

30:30 – Guest.

32:20 – Chuck: You are learning more about management? What resources do you use?

32:26 – Guest: I read a lot of Medium articles. I am a huge fan of management articles, and Basecamp. Also, your newsletter, Chuck!

33:30 – Chuck: Anything else?

33:33 – Guest: Social Platforms – Medium.

33:58 – Chuck: Where can we find you?

34:00 – Guest answers the question.

34:50 – Advertisement – Fresh Books!

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Jérémie

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