you would define your models something like this:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
...
end
class Recruiter < User
...
def initialize
# ... special initialization for recruiters / you could put it here
super
end
...
end
and to create a new recruiter, you would do this:
Recruiter.create(:name => "John Smith")
and because of the type
attribute in the STI user table (set to 'Recruiter'), the record will be for a recruiter.
You could put the special initialization for the STI models either in the model's initializer, or in a before filter with a if-cascade checking the type.
An initializer is probably much cleaner.