Networking 100Devs

| 3 min read
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Introduction

Networking is the class that everyone and I have been waiting for! But why it is important? Letā€™s say, you click APPLY on the job board vs building connections with individuals who are already in the industry. Leon describes this with an eagle flying by and picking up the ONE resume that was thrown out with other resumes and then the eagle drops the resume at the recruiterā€™s desk. The recruiter SEES your information on the resume.

  • resumes were thrown out with other resumes = clicking apply with other applications
  • the resume drops on the recruiterā€™s desk = build connections with individuals who are already in the industry

How to make friends and network?

There is a book that was recommended to the cohort on how to improve the people-skill. If you are not good with people like me, this is the book for you!

Where to find people?!?!

Since the pandemic, a lot of meetups are virtual/online and this makes networking easier. You can meet people from different locations! This networking thing can be overwhelming for some, however, you can always start SMALL with engaging posts on Twitter or LinkedIn and then build your way up at your own pace. Donā€™t be like ā€œgo big or go homeā€!

For the conference, some of them are paid but there are ways to attend them for free based on Leonā€™s recommendations.

  • Be a volunteer! It is possible that you canā€™t listen to the talk, BUT you can meet other volunteers who may share the same or similar interests as you!
  • Be honest! Tell them that you canā€™t afford the conference and they may give you a free ticket.

You also can find communities on discord or slack. Here is a repo that contains tech communities on slack. I am not sure if there is a list for discord, but if you know there is one, please leave a comment below.

Pro tip - always send a note to the people that you want to connect with on LinkedIn!

Always keep tracking!

Use either Google sheet or notion to track the people that you have made a connection with.

Included their information:

  • name
  • company
  • position
  • contact information
  • where met at
  • add on social media yet? (Twitter, Linkedin, others)
  • anything that you want to add.

Recap

Networking is quite an interesting topic. I learned a few things from the class. I hope you learn from this as well. Also, the best part is, we are starting the network early! In the end, we will know a good amount of people in the tech industry!

Thank you for reading! ā˜ŗļø