

Ask HN: Indeed 'Ruby' trends - what do you think? - tamersalama
http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby%2C+java%2C+python%2C+perl&l=&relative=1
This graph was passed around at work today. Although the number of postings about ruby is low, the relative (growth) is amazingly high.<p>What do you think?<p>Edit: My own take a few years back - http://jobalytics.tamersalama.com/
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lunchbox
That trend is relative. Here it is in absolute terms:

[http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby,+java,+python,+perl&#...</a><p>Ruby
started out with hardly any postings, so its relative growth is astronomical.

~~~
bfung
[http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=java,+ruby,+f%23,+scala,+c...](http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=java,+ruby,+f%23,+scala,+clojure&l=&relative=1)

Relatively, clojure wins, and f# fluctuates quite a bit and ends up at where
ruby is.

[http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=java,+ruby,+f%23,+scala,+c...](http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=java,+ruby,+f%23,+scala,+clojure)

Absolutely, the graph basically tells a completely inverse story.

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mechanical_fish
Based on this other URL:

[http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby%2C+drupal&l=](http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby%2C+drupal&l=)

and some clicking back and forth between the "Absolute" and "Relative"
scales... I don't know what to think. The "Relative" numbers make no sense, so
I wouldn't trust them for any purpose whatsoever. "Percentage growth: 375000?"
I wish I could erase those graphs from my mind lest my subconscious be tainted
by the memory of a single pixel.

Someone needs some unit tests, or perhaps a math teacher.

~~~
lunchbox
Example: at the beginning of the time period there was 1 Drupal posting, and
now there are 3751. Each increase of 1 represents an additional 100% growth
over the original, so you have 3750 * 100% = 375,000% growth.

A poor way to measure rapid growth, but that seems to be their system.

~~~
mechanical_fish
I think you're probably correct, but "poor" is much too generous a description
of such a methodology. It rates at least an "awful", and "garbage" is not
unwarranted.

Consider that it is only an accident of fate that there was merely 1 Drupal
posting at time 0. If there had been two, I guess the entire trendline would
be half as big.

Or consider this even wackier example:

[http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby%2C+mongodb&l=&...](http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby%2C+mongodb&l=&relative=1)

This goes to show that the algorithm is at least smart enough not to explode
when dividing by zero. (There were, I'm pretty sure, zero mentions of
"MongoDB" in job postings in 2005.) But, then, what does _this_ graph measure?
What are we dividing by for MongoDB? The number of postings at some arbitrary
later time?

~~~
xanderhud
What's the proper way to do this?

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teaspoon
Any Ruby vs. Python comparison here is probably tainted by the fact that Rails
often becomes "Ruby and Rails" or even just "Ruby" in recruiterspeak. You
don't see a lot of reqs for "Python and Django" or "Python and Tornado".

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donw
The 'relative' graph is rubbish. The 'absolute' graph says something that I
think is fairly obvious: If you want a job, you'll have an easier time finding
it if you can write Java (or C++, or C#).

I did a bit of clicking around, and most of the Ruby jobs were for Ruby on
Rails, which is a little disappointing, but not surprising.

Most of the Python jobs seem to mention python as a secondary skill next to
PHP, or are otherwise a massive mash of keywords. Which is even more
disappointing; even though I'm more of a Ruby guy, Python is an excellent
language for any serious number crunching. I can't think of _anything_ in any
other general-purpose language that comes close to SciPy/NumPy.

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techiferous
Regional searches show less of a steady upward trend:
[http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby+boston,+ruby+%22san+f...](http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby+boston,+ruby+%22san+francisco%22,+ruby+atlanta&l=&relative=1)

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pyre
Look at the wild fluctuations for c++:

[http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=python+toronto,+perl+toron...](http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=python+toronto,+perl+toronto,+ruby+toronto,+java+toronto,+c%2B%2B+toronto,+c+toronto&l=&relative=1)

Or Perl:

[http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=python+toronto,+perl+toron...](http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=python+toronto,+perl+toronto,+ruby+toronto&l=&relative=1)

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jacktang
And I add erlang:
[http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby,+java,+python,+perl,+...](http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=ruby,+java,+python,+perl,+erlang&l=&relative=1)

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tamersalama
My own take a few years back - <http://jobalytics.tamersalama.com/>

