Should I Attend Conferences as an Aspiring Developer?

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Hey folks, I am just headed to CrossFit here on Monday morning. Hopefully I'm going to get a lot of code commute episodes done this week because I am going into work every single day. We got some people that are flying in uh from couple different areas so I got to clear my windows and um get a lot filmed. I want to talk about a question that was submitted on X or Twitter or whatever you want to call it. And uh this one's going to be about uh networking conferences as a software developer and especially someone trying to get into tech. So I'll share my thoughts on that. Uh I just wanted to give a quick disclaimer cuz this this has come up before for YouTube at least. Um I don't delete people's comments just as a heads up. Uh the only comments I will ever delete are if people are attacking like groups of other people.

So, for example, if you're being racist or uh sexist or anything and I think it's uh offensive or derogatory, I'll delete it. Uh otherwise, like if you're just disagreeing or you have like a strong opinion, you hate what I'm saying, whatever, I will not delete your comments. So, if you are posting comments and you're like, why are you deleting them? Cuz uh it's come up recently, but it's also come up before. I'm not. Uh, so it's YouTube doing something and I don't know. Like I can't even see because like I said, I don't actually care if you have a different opinion than I have or you hate what I'm saying. Like the whole point of being able to comment is to be able to to share your perspective back. So ideally, you find a way to do that in a nonshitty way, but I mean, I can't control you, so do what you want.

But yeah, the only stuff I will delete is like uh racist or sexist. So just as a heads up. Okay. Um so this topic for conferences, networking, that kind of stuff for aspiring developers. It's actually really good timing. I just had a a podcast interview with someone uh yesterday uh from Australia and they were talking about how they got their job from uh from going to a conference and uh and networking that way. So, uh, that's pretty cool. Uh, I'm going to be speaking at a conference in just over a week, which, uh, good reminder, Nick, get your presentation together. Uh, but I when I was thinking about how I wanted to talk through this, my my sort of meta point, my my takeaway for the entire video is is really this. I think it's that for these types of things, you get out what you put into them.

And that might seem kind of weird because you're going to attend to something uh like isn't it like you know it's created for you so that you can get the benefit and yes uh and yes but um I I strongly believe that you get out what you put into them. Um, so I wanted to give you a parallel example to this so then we can kind of dive back into like the the conference part specifically, but I was talking someone recently about um about like effective ways of learning. Sorry, there's something on the road I got to drive around. Okay, looks like a piece of clothing, not an animal. That's good news. And so we were talking about learning sessions that uh this yeah this was for our team that's why and I was saying hey like you know like full transparency for me at

least I learn by being hands-on so like if uh there's a learning session going on if it's not structured in a way that I get to walk through like either code or I'm like you know if it's uh for debugging and stuff I'm not configuring dashboard boards and and running uh like things on the command line to go like get logs or whatever else. Like if I'm not doing the things, then in the moment I might have this false sense of like, okay, that makes sense. And then, you know, hours after a session like that, it's almost like all of it's gone from my head. That's just how I am. And things have always been like that. when I was in university and I was going to lectures like if it was just me scrambling to get the notes down like you know I might have again like a false sense of okay that made sense and then the reality would be I would get tested on it and have no idea what's going on.

So I know for myself after years of trying to reflect on this like if I am not doing things with that information it is not staying in my head. In fact most of it will not and a lot of the time I find that it's actually just not a productive or helpful kind of thing for me. Now, that means if there was a topic that was being presented and it was structured in a way that was not going to be hands-on, if I really really cared and I was like, I really need to like I I really enjoy this or I really need to do better in this area, like I would need to find a way to make that interactive for myself. doesn't mean I have to like disrupt someone's presentation or something, but if it's like they're talking about, hey, like, you know, we have I'm just making this up.

we have dashboards, we have these this type of information somewhere like I would need to force myself to go do those interactions even if that wasn't part of the presentation or if someone was walking through uh you know an architectural document like maybe and I'm just kind of making this up on the fly but maybe it would do me uh better to be able to even if they have their own document like maybe I should get a piece of paper out and I writing down like my understanding of how this architecture comes together like I need to do. If I am not doing it is not staying in my brain. So the reason I bring up this this parallel is because I find that it's a similar thing when it comes to to conferences and networking which is like yes you might go to a

conference and they have workshops or they have speakers and stuff and for me like that might be something where on the surface I can get some information but I will probably not get a and this is not a not against any speakers or anything. I probably won't get a ton of like value aside from like maybe just enjoying the experience from talks like that. A workshop might be very different for me because if I go to a workshop and we get to do things hands-on, like that's literally what I need to be able to to learn. Um, so I just wanted to mention that because this is one example of like if you understand this about yourself. Oh, it's a manual Subaru cuz it just rolled back pretty far this hill. Um, if you understand this about yourself, then you can start to get more out of like going to conferences and things like that.

Now, I think conferences and I'm going to I'm going to bucket like meetups and stuff like that into this as well because they are different, but they are similar. Um, I think that this kind of stuff is valuable for so many reasons, especially especially if you are uh not in the industry yet or you're just looking to network because you're trying to to switch jobs. But there's so many good things that come out of this or that have the potential to come out of this. And I think that's another key word here that I just want to reemphasize is like potential. There are literally no guarantees and it goes back to what I said earlier about getting out what you put in. But uh potential, there's opportunity and potential. So the obvious one that I've already been kind of talking about is that you can go there to learn about different topics from people that have different perspective or talk about things that you're not familiar with.

that you want to be familiar with. And um that's like some some obvious goodness, right? So um you know there might be opportunities where you could just sit at home and watch the YouTube video version of it and like you know you get the same kind of experience for yourself maybe but uh you have the opportunity to learn different perspectives different technology and um like I said if you understand your ways of learning effectively lean into that or else you might have an experience where you go and you're like well it seemed good but like now that I'm back from the meetup or the conference or whatever, I feel like ah like I don't know what the point was now because like it didn't actually stick with you kind of thing.

So learning opportunities okay that's one major uh benefit uh and on just a quick note conferences depending on the conference or the meetup generally conferences have a cost associated with them because they're a larger event that gets put on uh which means there's more resources a venue that there's kind of stuff that people have to pay for. So it's not that all meetups are free or all conferences cost but generally I would say a conference is going to be uh a little bit more impact on your wallet than a meetup and conferences are a little bit less frequent than uh you know a similar group doing a meetup. So just something to keep in mind especially if you're looking for a job. Um the other thing though that is a huge opportunity I got to switch lanes here. Holy cow. going below the speed limit on the highway and there's no traffic.

There's no reason for that. People got to wake up. I know it's before 6:00 a.m. but let's go. The other huge opportunity is networking. Okay. And I was pretty fortunate that when I was talking uh his name is Tom Tom Ridge, the individual I was talking with last night and uh it kind of came up when he was telling his career journey and I said like hey like let's pause on that for a second cuz I want you to to give a little bit of background like you just said that you got that role because you were going to uh Ruby conferences and he was like yeah. So, I got him to walk through that and I said, "One of the challenges I have is when I talk to people about networking and that kind of stuff is that I recommend people do it." And

I think that a lot of the time people hear me say that and they go, "But that's not going to guarantee me a job or their mind immediately jumps to like, okay, if I go to this meetup or this conference, like, how do I blast my resume to people? Like, how do I what's the best way to get my resume in the most hands?" And it's in my opinion just the wrong move. Personally, um, when I talk about networking and going to conferences and stuff like that, meetups, even when I talk about like engaging with people online, my opinion is that this is a longterm kind of thing that should stem from genuine interest. It's not a tactical like short-term like how do I get a job as fast as possible which is frustrating for people because I get it if you're looking for work

then like you're trying to optimize your time but I don't think that networking works like that at least valuable networking that doesn't mean that you can't like form or identif like form relationships or identify individuals quickly like yeah you absolutely absolutely could. But in order to like get the benefits of like networking for jobs, I would say like that's a side effect of networking. It's a potential side effect. The reason that you want to be networking is to connect with other like-minded individuals so that there are opportunities that might come up so that you can learn from them, you can ask questions, so you can give back and share to them as well, right? like it's it should be a long-term kind of like a mutual uh beneficial relationship.

So jumping into it right away to be like how do I how do I extract the value out of every individual I meet even if that's like maybe not how you you intend it like that's kind of what it is when you're trying to say how do I meet people just so I can get a job from them. Okay. So I think that meetups and conferences can be extremely helpful because the opportunity to meet lots of people is there. Okay, so that's just something I wanted to reiterate. But now I think one of the the other key parts I want to talk about is like if you're like me, like I am introverted. I'm introverted as hell. And I realize, and I I've said this in a bunch of videos, I realize that some people might not believe that or they might not see it if I'm talking on these videos, but like I'm very introverted.

If I spend time around people, I get like I lose energy dramatically. Like it exhausts me. Doesn't mean that I don't like people or anything like that or that I hate interacting. It's just that it requires a lot of energy for me. That's all. And so going to a meetup or a conference if it's a long day and I'm doing a bunch of things and then on top of that it's like, oh, you need to go network. One sec. I got to switch lanes. I got to do one more lane change here. But this truck is huge. Um I guess one more lane. Let's get the last one. Let's do it. Um yeah. Yeah. So, if I'm doing a day of that kind of stuff and now it's like, "Hey, go talk with people." It's like, "Oh, man." Like, I don't know if I have gas in the tank for that, right?

But the point is like, you kind of got to suck it up if you're trying to get the benefit out of it. And so, it's a short-term thing like for you to spend your time that way. Uh, I say that as someone that absolutely acknowledges that it's very draining if you're introverted, but like you need to find a like you need to find a way to like kind of break through that in the in the time that you're there. So that does mean like and you might want to do a bit of this might sound kind of funny, but I I I mean it because I understand what it's like to have difficult times like approaching people and talking to them. I I fully get it. You might want to do a bit of research and practice before you go. Hear me out. If you're like, I don't know how to go talk to people or like I feel awkward, this is this is me, by the way.

I am that way. Still to this day, I am that way. Right? So, I get it. And I have done this kind of thing in the past where um if you're finding you're awkward for doing that, and there's nothing wrong with that, you know, you don't have experience doing it. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Um what I would recommend is like you could watch YouTube videos on this kind of stuff. How are we going to move over? Let me You can watch YouTube videos on this kind of stuff, but you're going to probably need some practice. And one, at least for me, again, this might sound silly. One of the things that I tried doing when I was living in a condo was um again, I'm introverted, right? Like if I get into an elevator with people, I'm not saying a damn word. Like I don't I'm not spending my energy to go to chat with random strangers.

But that for me was something that I could practice because the odds of me getting into an elevator or waiting for an elevator or getting off an elevator when someone's getting on. The odds of that happening were pretty high in the condo building that I lived in. So there were all these micro opportunities where I was like there is such little risk. These are people that you see probably around and you just don't know them cuz you don't talk to them. say something like say anything. Uh I find for me I like to gravitate towards humor. So cracking little jokes and stuff like for me is a really good way to make myself feel comfortable around other people. Um I don't know the psychology behind that cuz I'm not a psychologist but that's something that I find works well. So if I'm nervous like I'm I try to make jokes and I don't know why but that makes me feel more comfortable around people.

But I had to practice doing this kind of thing for a long time and I'm still like I feel totally awkward to go approach groups of people for sure. Um I'm not I feel way less awkward if people come to talk to me but if I have to go approach people like ah very scary. So if you're if that's resonating with you and you're like yeah man like I get that then think about it. You're going to go to a conference and are you going to are you basically just going to go there and then make an excuse for yourself every time you want to go talk to people? And I'm not trying to like, you know, if that's resonating with you. I'm not trying to attack you. I'm trying to get you to think about this because if that's you, try to do some prep work before you go.

find ways to practice where you can just at least talk with people because the reality is that there are going to be people there that they're already talking in groups. There's going to be tons of other people that are just like you that are totally nervous to talk with people. Um, I I turn on like what seems to be extroverted as for me at least, especially if I notice that other people seem more socially awkward than me. Because the only thing that's more awkward than me being socially awkward is me getting secondhand awkwardness from someone else. And that's usually enough to tip me over where I'm like, "Oh no, like I can't watch this for someone else." I need to be the one for both of us to be more more extroverted or outgoing in this situation. So I will usually turn on I find something internally that turns on to be a little bit more extroverted.

But um I I highly recommend that you find ways and practice to uh you know to be able to approach groups of people. That could be going up and like standing in and listening and and then you don't have to like I don't know like have a huge speech or something when you go to meet people, but like getting into the conversation, you know, nodding along, listening, finding opportunities where if they're talking about something that resonates with you, like sharing something that could be small, could be asking a question if you're like, I don't have anything to share on this. just finding ways to start engaging and not avoiding them because like I said, if you're like me, it's easy to kind of avoid because you're like, "This is too awkward. I don't want to do it." So, I highly recommend people go to conferences and meetups.

Uh find those opportunities, but you get out of them what you put in. So, if you're not going to go talk to people, the networking effect is going to be slim. If you talk to a lot of people, but you're not genuinely interested and you're just there to like blast your resume, probably not going to be effective. If you're going to listen to things and you're like, I need to be hands-on, maybe you should have prioritized workshops. Um, maybe that means that if you're going to meetups, maybe something you can recommend to the people organizing them is, hey, can we do hands-on sessions? Is that a possibility? So, like you get out what you put in and um I I do recommend it. It's just that it's not like zero effort. So, hope that helps. I thought that was a really good question to ask and I I hope that if people have more questions on that, just try to ask.

I'm not an expert on it, but I can at least share all the things that make me awkward and how I'm trying to navigate those things in my own life. So, hope that helps. See you next time.