It’s now been roughly two years since I decided I’d had enough of Microsoft and went in search of greener (or at least less annoying) pastures. It seems a reasonable time to sum up how it’s been going again.

First off, it’s safe to say that I’m a Rails developer now. I dabbled in a few other things (and I’m always up for learning more), but for me, Rails has offered the right balance between pleasure of development and being able to find interesting work that puts food on the table. My hourly rate for Rails is still not what my hourly rate for .NET was, but I’m OK with that tradeoff.

With two years of Rails work under my belt, I’ve moved to the point where I’m starting to contribute to the framework. Perhaps not surprisingly to those who know my history, I’ve figured out that the best spot for me to contribute is on the documentation side (although I have had one code change accepted to core). I’m helping out with the docrails project (which is producing, among other things, the Rails Guides) and contributing the weekly “edge Rails” roundups for the Riding Rails weblog. I’ve also started writing for Rails Inside and Ruby Inside.

I also find myself playing Pied Piper and helping other people make the transition from .NET to Rails – including Dana Jones, who happens to be my wife as well as a designer and developer in her own right (so now we have two Rails developers in the office and yes, we are available for hire). I won’t say this is the career path for everyone, but it’s certainly worked for me.

All in all, I’m happy with where my career stands right now. Sure, we could be busier, and the hourly rates could be higher, but that’s always the case (and I have some other plans up my sleeve to help move in that direction). Overall, the increased happiness factor has made the transition more than worth it.