Commit Your Code CYC2025 Recap - Thoughts On Networking at Conferences

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Hey folks, I'm just headed to CrossFit here. Um, I'm going to talk today a little bit about the conference I was just at. Share some thoughts on that because I know I had some questions before and I've talked a little bit about networking and things like that. So, I figured do a little recap. um and I can share with you some thoughts that I had from going there as an attendee and a speaker and then some thoughts from like my observations from talking with others. So, okay. So, the conference I went to was in Dallas, so a bit of a trip for me. Uh I live in Seattle, right? So, um, the, uh, conference was technically last Thursday, Friday, so I flew in Wednesday night. Got there a little later than I expected. I think when I was looking, I wasn't really paying attention, and I do this a lot, but especially with travel.

Said I was going to land at 7:30 p.m. And, uh, I guess whatever, like in Google or in Gmail or something, I think it was still in my time zone. So, I actually got there 9:30 to 10:00 and then by the time I got to the hotel, it was closer to like 10:30, 11. Oops. That's fine, though. Um, the only reason I'm saying oops, though, is because I was hoping to use uh, you know, a comfortable amount of time to like go over my talk a little bit more, get some last minute things together, like code snippets. Uh, but didn't really have that. So, I was up I was up pretty late. Uh but I guess not that late because it's 2 hours off for me. But the point is I had to wake up early. So got that together though. And uh so the real part of the conference was the Thursday, Friday.

And so the way to think about these things is like at least this conference was a lot of uh talking tracks. So you can go check out a bunch of different um speakers, different topics to focus on. And like every conference is going to be different, right? like you can go to a conference specifically for a language. Uh this one was more uh general. So you had like you know leadership and management tracks, you had uh you know different programming languages and and tech stacks and the organizers did a really good job of like during a period you could pick from like you know different tracks and that doesn't guarantee that there's not going to be an overlap between two that you want to go to but um I guess sort of helps helps prevent that kind of thing from happening.

And I would say the the first sort of point that I want to make here is that uh you know if you're going to a conference and there's talks and stuff like that uh if they publish the agenda which I feel like most do try to spend some time up front and figure out how you want to uh like plan uh and you know maybe it's not perfectly rigid maybe things come up like just to give you an example I had uh there were two times I wanted to go watch some talks and um I I was talking with people out, you know, out in the hallways and looked kind of checked my phone after. I was like, "Oh my god." Like we were talking for and I'm not complaining, but like talking for like 45 minutes to an hour and like I completely missed a talk.

Uh so, you know, it's all recorded. It's fine. But, you know, my point is that go into those events trying to think about how you want to spend your time because if you're given a schedule, like you just have this opportunity so that you're not totally winging it. Um, yeah, I think that's my my first recommendation. So, they do a pretty good job of spreading these things out, different tracks, and they have speakers from like all sorts of different backgrounds as well. Um, something that's pretty cool is like there's pictures of the speakers, right? And the speakers are wander around in the halls when they're not speaking cuz their slots are only 25 minutes and most of them are there the whole time. So, you know, if you're like, "Hey, I'm not sure if I want to go see this talk." like you could probably go find the speaker and talk to them about it.

Um, and get an idea for what they're all about. And I would say I actually did notice a lot of people doing this, maybe not fully on purpose, but uh I think there were people that were running into each other. So people were running into speakers talking and then going, "Oh, like that that actually sounds like a really cool talk." And they might not have been planning to go to it. And um as a side effect of that conversation, they're like, I'm going to go check that out. So again, you have the opportunity, at least at a conference like this one to go find and talk to speakers. Maybe some of the uh you know, the really big conferences or whatever, if they bring in, you know, really bigname speakers, maybe you don't have such an opportunity. But at least at this one, that was the case.

Um I think let me I'll talk briefly about what I went to. So I went to go watch a leadership talk. Um two actually I think I watched two leadership talks. The first one uh not really uh applicable to me but applicable for me because I like talking about this kind of thing. Um but this one was called so you want to be a manager. And so there was a woman there that was sharing her experience kind of transitioning into management and how that role looks a lot different than an individual contributor and sort of some of her lessons learned. But um there's a bit of a funny experience that I want to share with you folks cuz it's uh I don't know I had to like text my wife right after. That's that's how cool it was. But uh we were eating lunch and you know in typical fashion at these conferences it's like you know everyone's getting food at the exact same time and then there's only so much seating.

So inevitably you're kind of like you know there are people took all the seats inside. There are people that took all the seating outside. So we had to kind of poke around and go find some conference rooms cuz no one's speaking during lunch but they're getting set up. So that's actually how I found this talk. It was a bit of a coincidence, but we're eating lunch in this room and uh you know there's only a couple people in the room and the speakers kind of she's got her stuff set up. So she ended up walking over to say hi and we were briefly chatting and then she kind of pointed at my name tag and she said, "Wait, you're Nick. You're you're Dev Leader." Because if you're not familiar with my other channels and socials, I I post as dev leader. It's my personal brand.

I said, "Yeah." I said, "That's me." and she said, "You're in my talk." So, apparently she had uh when she was putting her talk together and doing a little bit of research, she had been watching some of my videos where I talk about transitioning into management, which is kind of funny. So, um as she was doing her talk, there was a point where she was like, you know, like, you know, summarizing or paraphrasing a quote of mine, pardon me. and she was like, "And that's from that's from dev leader who's sitting in the back." Uh, which is pretty funny. So, um, anyway, I thought that was really cool and, uh, a nice like I don't know, as a content creator, it's nice to know that someone literally was trying to do like their own research for a talk to find some relevant points, you know, from other people's perspective to kind of pull together to um, what's the word?

like to kind of back up their their own perspective, right? They're like, I have this belief about this. They're watching some content and going, "Ah, yes, here's another person that that also kind of says the same thing." So, it was cool that someone came across my content for that. Um, as a content creator, sometimes it feels like you create things and um it just goes into the void. So, it was nice to know that wasn't the case here. Okay, people, you're going to have to Move over. I got to switch one more lane. Sorry, it's my wife passing me. No way. I can't let that happen. So, that was one talk I went to. And then the other leadership talk I went to was from someone that was in uh the army and they were talking about uh you know leading from the front leading

from the back and like leading uh as an embedded and um again their perspective from their experience was that leading from the front is like too selfish leading I'm I'm very much paraphrasing uh leading from the front is very selfish leading from the back is kind of too hands off but leading embedded um as a leader gives you the opportunity to be you know um building the best connection, trust and level of respect with your team and to be more effective. So um I like you know again at a high level very much agree with that. It's uh when people talk about managers being technical like do managers have to code or not? And I'm like, "Hey, look, that's a like I have managers that literally do not code right now. Can they code? Sure. It's the same as me. I don't code at work, but like I can absolutely code cuz I code every day outside of work.

But uh the difference being that like from this is my perspective when it comes to being technical like you are able you're able to talk the talk and if you really need to walk the walk, then you can. And um that's how I see like being more embedded. It doesn't have to be that you're necessarily coding with the team. If you're on small teams like at a startup or something like that um or even in big tech but the team is really small and it's the team growth is not there then I would say like absolutely you should you should be coding. But after a certain number of direct reports it starts to make less sense. Okay. So that was a good talk. Both those were good talks and I got to go to those. There was a couple others that I wanted to go watch.

Um there was another net speaker that I wanted to go see was Caleb Jenkins. Uh I missed his talk which was unfortunate and his name's eluding me right now but there was another net talk. I was literally talking with the guy and uh I had it on my on my mind to go. I was like, "That's definitely one I'm going to go watch." And then and then I missed it. Um and one that I was late to. So anyway, um that's why I was saying like plan your time out. But uh in this case, I got caught off guard from talking with people, which is really good and probably like the last thing I'll focus on for this video. But um the networking is uh is awesome, right? Um, I remind people that that don't know, like, yes, I'm making YouTube videos.

Yes, I have YouTube channels, but I am very introverted and in public spaces like I understand if you're like, man, I don't know how I'm going to go talk to people at a conference. Like, you know, like how I I struggle with that. Like, man, I do too. Like, I was just at a conference and it was a great reminder. like I do really struggle with that and um I need to get better and I'm trying to get better but for me to go approach people and talk to them is very challenging you know full transparency it's very challenging if people come up to me I feel very comfortable but I feel um the feeling I get is being like socially awkward if I approach a group of people so I I do understand uh where people come from on that but like I that

um yeah, I want to remind people as well that if you're I I need to remind myself of this, but when you go up to a group of people, the first thing that they're thinking is not, "Oh, who's this weirdo?" Like, that's in your head. You make that up about yourself. Most people are extremely welcoming. Uh I know that when people were coming up to talk to me, like I felt very comfortable. So, and like, you know, it was exciting to have people come up. So there wasn't a single time where I was like, "Oh god, like what's this person doing?" So don't uh you know, try not to think about it that way. But I do understand uh cuz I just experienced that.

Um, I got to talk with a lot of people that were very much like, you know, early in their career or hadn't really officially started their professional career and um, you know, tried tried as best as I could to have in-person conversations about some of the same things we talk about on this channel and reminding people that are junior, are aspiring, like, hey, it's not easy, but like kind of you can't give up on it because if you sit back and and kind of wait for things to happen, you're going to be disappointed. So, that means like being proactive with like, you know, updating and refreshing your resume, trying to get experience to put on your resume, even if that's side projects, um applying to a bunch of places, and networking. And had this conversation about networking many times, and I've talked about it on this channel as well, but like networking is intentional.

networking isn't like um it's not a shortcut. It's not the the quick path to getting a job. Uh sure in some cases like by chance that might happen but uh I would say networking is much more about the relationships you build up and then over time there is a better surface area for such things to happen. Okay. It's not like I would highly recommend not looking at networking as you know how do I how does this let me extract value from people or help me put my resume in more people's hands immediately. Like I just don't think that that's a good strategy. Um because I think proper networking does take time. It's literally building a relationship. I don't mean romantic relationship but building a relationship with other people. That's the kind of thing that doesn't happen immediately. So for me, like networking at these events, uh yeah, I got to meet a lot of people that were aspiring.

I got to meet other creators, which is great because then I can, uh, you know, more content for me to go check out, uh, more opportunities to collaborate. Um, I got to learn from a bunch of other speakers who've been speaking for years and years and years, which is really cool because, you know, I am not I am not a speaker. I've done public speaking now twice at the same venue in Texas and I would I think I would like to do more of it. I did enjoy it. Um, but like I need I need more practice for sure. Let me in. Sorry. Lane changes. They take all my brain power. But yeah, I I'm really proud of the people that that did come up for, you know, to chat for networking because I know for a lot of these people, like not that they did a poor job of it, but like I know they're nervous.

I'm also nervous when I go up and talk to people. And I was telling some of them, hey, like, you know, good job. like good on you for coming up and talking because like I as someone who's been in the industry for over a decade I'm like I struggle with that and you did it right like awesome job. So it was really good that people did that. I had um you know people were I'm not not trying to toot my own horn here kind of thing but like people were saying after talking like they felt motivated to get like kind of refocused on what they're doing. Uh, which is that's, you know, that's what I want. I want to make sure that when I'm talking with people that are trying to get into the industry, they're not there's there's enough other pressure and external factors from the media that make them think like they'll never get a job.

And like I need to remind them like that's not the case. Things are changing, yes, but like it's not like, oh, there's no job. like I've I'm still like, you know, working with uh just, you know, rehiring an intern as a junior developer. All these people that are like, "Junior developers don't exist anymore." It's like, "What do you mean?" They literally do. I understand if you're having challenges getting a job. Like, don't get me wrong, but the role didn't just evaporate and you're kind of just um perpetuating this madeup fear as some weird confirmation bias for yourself, but like there are absolutely junior developer jobs. Um they were giving some stats at uh at the conference because there's a couple of guys like the guy who runs free code camp was there and there's a can't remember the name of the other initiative but another sort of like uh free uh you know programming learning uh program to go through.

Uh he was talking about how many people you know have been placed in jobs over the past year or something right? So, it's like the the jobs exist. I'm just saying it's uh it's obviously challenging, but the you know, the biggest takeaway here is that like aside from just going to talks like network, um it's 2 days. Get over that discomfort of trying to talk to people, um you know, there were a couple creators I went up to. I got to meet Tim Corey this weekend. If you don't know who Tim Corey is, he's the uh I believe by subscriber count the biggest.net net YouTuber on the planet, which is pretty cool. Uh, I got to meet I don't know if I can say his last name, but Francisco the Rust guy. If you watch any videos on Rust, Francisco makes tons of YouTube videos on Rust.

He's amazing. Um, he was like, he was a very, very genuine guy. So, he's going to come on my podcast. Um, he was super excited. Like, just all around like really awesome guy to talk with. Those are a couple people that I had to like awkwardly go up to and be like, "Uh, hi. I make YouTube videos and I want to talk to you." But you got to you got to network. Got to get over it. Um, it's just more more opportunities for um for, you know, different different things. In my case, connecting with creators. For you, it might be might be job placements in the future. You got to do it though. Um, and then in some people's cases it was just for motivation. So overall, commit your code. 2025 was awesome. Uh, if they do it again next year, I'm going back for sure.

So, thanks for watching. See you in the next one.