The Rails Up-And-Comers Contest
As the Series Editor of the Professional Ruby Series by Addison-Wesley, I am pleased to announce a contest specially for Rails up-and-comers. The idea is to support folks that are working hard towards entering the Rails job market, which as you might know, is currently suffering from severe talent shortages!
UPDATE: Thanks to a generous donation by Chad Fowler, his essential title: The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development will be awarded to the top three winners!
The Fabulous Prize Packs
One (1) grand prize winner will receive the full stack of Pro Ruby Series books (pictured above), worth over $250, plus The Passionate Programmer:
- Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example
- Rails 3 Way, The (2nd Edition)
- Rails AntiPatterns: Best Practice Ruby on Rails Refactoring
- Service-Oriented Design with Ruby and Rails
- Distributed Programming with Ruby
- The Merb Way
- The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development
Two (2) first runner-up prize packs will be awarded, consisting of:
- Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example
- Rails 3 Way, The (2nd Edition)
- Rails AntiPatterns: Best Practice Ruby on Rails Refactoring
- The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development
Ten (10) second runner-up winners will receive a free copy of the Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial book.
Contest Entry
I love hearing personal stories, especially from people that are working hard to succeed. The first and main part of your entry submission to the contest is the story of how you're working to succeed as a "Rails up-and-comer." Tell us who you are, where you come from and what you're about. Tell us why you picked Ruby and Rails over a myriad of other options and why you think you'll succeed. You may enter your story directly as a comment here or link to an entry on your own blog or elsewhere on the web.
The second part of the entry is based on what some people call an "honors system"; it's a promise that you'll write an honest Amazon review for at least one of the books (if you win). This point of this contest is most definitely not about drumming up reviews, but I figure that it is a good opportunity to get some so it'd be dumb to pass it up.
Deadline / Dates
You have until midnight EST on Sunday, January 23rd to enter your submission. I'll announce the winners sometime late on Monday, January 24th.
Judging
I'll be the sole judge of this contest and will rank the competitors subjectively at my discretion based on how much I like their story. I don't expect nor want a full biography, but if you're going to enter please do make it compelling reading. Hint: focus on obstacles overcome and aspects of your story that are unique to your personal context.
GOOD LUCK -- I can't wait to read your stories!
The Fine Print
I will announce the winners via an update to this blog post. This is not an official Addison-Wesley contest. The books I'm awarding are from my personal Series Editor stash and I'm paying for shipping the prizes myself, from my own personal funds. You should enter the contest from outside the USA only if you are willing and able to PayPal me the additional cost of shipping books to you if you win. (The cost in excess of 10USD). Obviously I don't know where you are so I have no idea what it will cost beforehand. Please don't email me asking for an estimate of shipping costs. I'll work on getting something of value for all contestants that don't win an official prize, but no promises until I see how many contestants participate.
