In self-taught and technical boot camp learning models, it is easy to feel alone, lost and like you are studying foreign concepts in a vacuum. What do you do when Google and StackOverflow don't fully answer your question? How do you quickly crowdsource ideas and gather relevant perspectives from others who have been where you are in your learning journey and career stage? This is where being community taught comes in.
Community-Taught Learning
Being "community taught" is not a new concept but I believe it is the best learning model to adopt. Community-taught learning can be a combination of being "self-taught", being a traditional computer science student and being a boot camp graduate. There are so many resources to pull relevant information from when it comes to learning programming languages, complex tech concepts and staying up to date on the latest tech gadgets and news. One of the fastest ways to immerse yourself in community-taught learning whether you are still figuring out what you want to focus on or if you are a seasoned developer is to join an online or in-person community.
Finding Fellow Travelers
The quickest way to find fellow travelers on your tech learning and career journey is to join an online community! You're already learning online and seeking assistance and answers so why not find a community that is already filled with others traveling the same road? There are numerous online tech communities on Slack, Twitter and Discord and I want to highlight a few that I find especially helpful as you are getting started.
CS Dojo's Discord Community: join to ask anything about programming, data science, DevOps and more! We’re all about tech here
join here: CS Dojo Discord Community
FLGW: Frontend Learning Group for Women is an encouraging, low-pressure community for women to grow as software developers.
join here: Frontend Learning Group for Women
Zona Tribe Discord Community is a thriving community for tech beginners to jump in and find others on the same learning path as you!
join here: Zona Tribe Discord Community
Denver Devs is a community for software engineers, students, hobbyists, and tech professionals in Denver CO and surrounding areas
if you’re in Denver, join here: Denver Devs Discord Community
4C is a collaborative community of content creators! Join and level up your content creation on all social media platforms
join here: 4C Discord Community
Commit Your Code is a thriving Discord community to support you on your tech journey!
join here: Commit Your Code Discord Community
Getting the Most Out of Online Communities
Hooray! You have found some relevant online tech communities that will prove to be a great resource as you travel along...as long as you make the most of what they have to offer. The first thing to do after joining an online community is :
Introduce Yourself: let everyone know who you are, why you joined and what you're primarily looking for in this particular community. You may want to include relevant links like your LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub and website or portfolio.
Interact and Engage With Others: this is why you joined so start connecting! Comment on relevant posts, use emoji reactions to show your support and begin to get a sense of the rhythm and pace of the community. You never know what conversations can start or quality career connections can be made just by interacting with others in the group so be intentional about doing this.
Ask Questions: ask sooo many questions. When you find the right online community fit and feel comfortable enough, asking questions will come easily. As a beginner, this is where you will gain the most value out of online communities in the beginning. Seasoned professionals in tech LOVE QUESTIONS! They love to help out and spread their knowledge around so don't be shy or feel like your question is a dumb one.
Find Opportunities to Collaborate: another great thing about online tech communities is that there are endless possibilities to collaborate with others on projects. This will help immensely in not only learning new technologies, getting feedback from others and learning to work in a group setting but will also give you relevant work experience as working on teams is essential in tech.
Finding In-Person Tech Communities
Now that you have conquered online tech communities, why not try out an in-person community? A quick search on Meetup and EventBrite can help you find local tech networking and social groups that can prove to be one of the best job search tools on your tech career journey. Try doing a keyword search using "tech", "software developers" or even the programming language you are currently learning. Once you find a group or multiple events you want to attend, SHOW UP! Make a goal to go to one event and see how it feels. Bring a friend or try to connect with a group member beforehand if you don't feel comfortable going alone. Tech meetups are generally a lot of fun, casual and attended by others who are friendly, helpful and want to see you succeed. Many meetups also include food and drinks so this is a major win for everyone! Get out there and see what in person local tech communities exist near you!
Get Involved
After you have explored the many different communities available, whether online or in person and you have interacted and made meaningful connections, it's time to consider your involvement. Get in touch with the community management and find out ways you can help serve the community you are involved in. It takes everyone's input in one way or another to help communities run smoothly so once you have found value in a particular space, be sure to do your part in giving back the same way the community has given to you.