How do you expand your real-life network?

Question

I come from a small city and university where few students seem to share my interest in programming. Although the internet has provided me with endless knowledge and technical support, it is not as effective as actually knowing real people when it comes to things like finding a job.

My question is what do you do to expand your network? I know there are like-minded people out there, I just can't seem to find them.

I've been attending student clubs, lectures, events, and joining user groups but for the most part the experience has been mediocore at best. Most of the user groups are pretty pathetic; ie: aim for one meeting per month, conditional on whether they can find sponsorship money. The speakers and events are better, but I get the impression that most of the people in the industry are not that interested in chatting with me because I'm "just a student" and don't have much to offer. Student clubs are basically a joke because of student apathy. Moving is not a realistic option until I earn a degree.

Answer 1

Build your personal brand. Follow Gary V. advice. Build your personal Brand Equity now so that when you need it you can cash in. But to build it you need to give.

How do you give? Write a blog and give as much of your knowledge as possible. Get on twitter and see how you can help people with their problems. Don't just rely on who is following you go seek them out. Use Twitter search or TweetDeck which will provide a column for your search query. I have three search queries that I monitor all the time "jQuery" which I monitor to help the community with jQuery, "ASP.NET" I monitor to learn and "Brand Management" which is the services that my company is in.

Online you need to be visible to people so that you have a following for when you need to ask for a job people will know you and trust you and be willing to offer you a job.

Sounds like you are trying to network locally which is great but it sounds like either the network you are working might not being that useful or you are underestimating how effective your networking is at this moment.

Good luck I hope this information is helpful.

Answer 2

I would advice in getting 5-10 students working on project euler or top codes(depending on your style) and have them reading, sleeping, talking and working on code all the time. If you can get that ball rolling you will be able to get a couple of teachers interested in helping you guys get better.

Something very stupid but cool im doing right now is inviting everyone in my building(a 30+ startup cluster) with some flyers and bugging them in the cafeteria to attend to a class.

The interesting part is that every session, everyone atending have to write what they do in their free time, hobbies and projects and with that info, we all vote who should give the next class (and about what). So we get pretty weird stuff from dancing to egipcian stuff(and some programming). So far its working pretty cool(everyone is on IT so even the most boring and historic topics have ended up teaching some programming stuff so its cool).

Answer 3

One of the ways I've done so is by participating in online communities, like this one. I'm more well known on SQL Server Central, because I've been there so long. Through these types of communities I've had the opportunity to meet some great folks in real life. Because we have established common ground through the community, going to events and meetings with them are more meaningful.

Another thing to do is get involved in your local user groups. I don't just mean attending, but actively volunteering and looking for ways to help out. That can lead to situations where you can bring your online community friends local. For instance, I'm president of a local PASS chapter. Last year we were able to bring in two of my friends from the online community to speak. It also was a chance to get together and talk about more than just technology. One of those guys gave me some valuable advice not only about the field and about building the local user group, but also for some things to consider in my ministry.

Finally, I'll second the suggestion for Twitter. I use it heavily and through it I have gotten to know additional folks in the field as well as people who share the same interests as me. There's a guy just down the road about an hour who is into technology and serves in ministry. We direct mail each other all the time. He helps run a local .NET user group and I'll be down to see him in person in a few months for that purpose.

Answer 4

User groups come and go but user problems remain.

With 25+ years in the industry, every user group I've ever been involved in has had a limited lifespan. The best are those that provide as much a social mixture as technical info.

I recommend considering your needs from a few different aspects:

1. Mixing with peers - forget about it in person and live online. If there were great local groups you'd have found them by now. Relax and pick your drinking buddies by personality, not platform.
2. Becoming someone want to talk to - basically, make your reputation online by contributing to existing projects and SO. I'd pick one big open source project used locally (hopefully job listings can help you identify the local use). Consider writing documentation rather than code, or take on the role of reviewing code rather than trying to write the world's best Blah module. You will gain more respect faster by taking on the unwanted jobs.
3. Getting a job - point 2 should help. Consider giving talks to non-computing groups or helping non-profit organisations with their infrastucture. There are projects like geoserver where interesting technology is being developed to help real users. They will not know about user groups but try asking at Rotary for groups interested in computing help or information.
4. Join ACM and see if they can find you mentors or groups online or nearby.
5. Volunteer to mentor high-school students - nothing will push you faster than trying to come up with answers for someone only a few steps behind you. Your reputation will be built by their parents and teachers.
6. Once you have a bit of success at any of the above, turn around and present your experiences to others at the university - you may find them coming out of the woodwork!