On the early mornings of 26th and 27th April (4am NZ time) members of the developer teams from Abletech and Addressfinder attended the [Devs For Ukraine](https://www.devsforukraine.io/) Conference, a free, online engineering conference with the goal to raise funds and provide support to Ukraine.

A client recently requested to add the functionality to be able to accept credit card payments within a Rails application that we were building. Specifically, they wanted users to be able to purchase vouchers using credit card payments and pass on any processing fees. Once the payment was complete, the transaction had to be recorded within the app and an email needed to be sent out to both the purchaser and the giftee. Stripe came into the picture then.

After finishing a Bachelor of Science majoring in Computer Science, and several months of job searching, I applied for an internship at Abletech.

I felt the need to grow. I was dissatisfied with the opportunities offered by my established career so I considered my options.

The Ruby community holds conferences all over the globe, using local and international speakers, for Rubyists of all levels. The latest conference was a single day of talks held at Te Papa in Wellington which is two blocks from Abletech’s headquarters.

In the UK, there are two Ruby conferences held each year — Bath Ruby and Brighton Ruby. North West Ruby user meetup group enthusiasts encouraged members to attend Brighton Ruby since it was the only Ruby conference being held this year.

Find out what Chris did, how he did it, and what he learnt along the way.

We’re often asked how students and graduates can increase their chances of getting a paid summer internship with Abletech. Here are a few options to help you stand out from the crowd:

Volunteers and participants at the 2018 workshop. Photo cred: RailsBridge

This year’s RubyConf AU was held in Doltone House at Jones Bay Wharf, Sydney. Here’s a review of my highlights:

Matt reflects on three months at Abletech. He’s been working with Ruby on Rails and describes coding, testing and deploying for both in-house and external clients. Watch a video to hear more about his experience of Test Frameworks, RSpec, Capybara, Microservices, Docker, APIs, Git and more!

This year’s RubyConf AU is the biggest yet with a long line-up of speakers and some very cool social events.

Working at Abletech is awesome. The team is really friendly and I’ve worked on a wide range of projects. From the moment I arrived for my first day, I was made to feel right at home and not at all like an intern. Carl gave me a tour of our office, I met the Abletech and Sharesight teams and, most importantly, learned how to operate the coffee machine! Everyone is incredibly skilled and talented and always available to help out when I’m stuck on a problem. It has also been a supportive learning environment where I’ve felt valued.

Our developers have been to Ruby conferences overseas for years. Having this on home turf made it a good chance to catch up with fellow New Zealand Ruby developers and support the local Ruby community.

Team Rails Girls Supercharged 2017

For the first time ever Rails Girls Wellington are running an event designed for people who no longer feel like beginners.

Here are Abletechers Kate Norquay, Oliver Greenaway and Carl Penwarden at the Wellington ‘meet & greet’ with up-and-coming graduates.

Abletech (and its sister companies) sometimes looks to hire 1–2 students for summer internship roles. The following seven steps will substantially increase your chances of getting one of these sought after positions.

Sam grew up in Wellington. She’s currently studying towards a Bachelor of Science at Victoria University. She has two majors: Computer Science and Media Design.

Following on from The Abletech story — part 1 we pick up the narrative at the point where Marcus and Nigel had begun hand-picking developers.

Launched in 2006, Abletech was borne out of a keen desire to boost business systems using cloud technology. Its founders worked, played and studied computing. They understood enterprise strategy and best practice. They became discerning. Discernment is a quality that continues to serve Abletech well.

Regan Ryan will give an introduction to Ruby Meta Programming — learn the nuts and bolts of how Ruby works, and begin the meta-programming journey

To me Rails Girls is a really good way to help people find programming and gain a support network. Dawn Richardson.

Nigel Ramsay and Tracey Norrish have been using Elixir, instead of Ruby, for an Addressfinder project. Watch a video or read the summary: