How to grow your network with Twitter Spaces
How to grow your network with Twitter Spaces
Hello and welcome back. A lot has changed in the world, even in the software development world. We have gotten away from in-person meetups. Twitter recently launched spaces over the summer, and it has been an excellent way for me to meet fellow like-minded people in the development world. It is great to get to know other devs, some of which I have fostered relationships with now. I have met some people in real life from spaces and had lunch and talked shop.
The thing that I learned from Kalob Taulien was "friends hire friends."
My First Space Experience
The first space I remember being in and engaging was over the summer in Jacob MG Evans's. He runs spaces Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights at 8 pm CST. He invited me to speak, and we just chatted. I told him how I was self-taught and working on getting a job in the industry.
We talked about projects I was working on and how he got into open-source with React, and how he has contributed to that community.
As I continued to join into his spaces, I started to feel more comfortable talking about development in public. I got to meet other people, other devs who are way better than myself and listen to them talk about topics that I could barely keep up with.
Meeting Danny Thompson
I think one of the most significant spaces I was in was one of Jacobs and Danny Thompson came in - myself looking up to Danny was slightly star-struck and nervous to talk. He is a rockstar in the self-taught world. At one point, Danny said, "Matt, what's going on with you? How are you doing?"
I was confused and lost and, most of all, worried. So I talked, and the conversation rolled from there. As we were closing the space for the evening, I said to myself, should you shoot your shot? So I said something I will never forget. I said, "I don't know when I will get a chance ever to speak to Danny again, so I want to ask Danny since you are from Memphis, what's your favorite Eightball and Mjg song? and why is it space-age pimping."
That gave him a chuckle, and then he gave me the response, "It is, and we will talk again. I am following you now."
Little did I know how that would change my Twitter life.
Starting Jr Dev Support Group
My friend Arielle and I started the Jr Dev Support Group space on Twitter. In my very first space Danny Thompson came in, and with him, over 100 people. It was intended to be a 30-40 minute space to kill time. It turned into a five-hour-long space.
I met a lot of big developers I looked up to. I am friends with these devs who are inviting me to speak in their spaces. My Twitter following grew. It was pretty amazing; I had people direct messaging me questions and asking me to do interviews and other things.
Networking in Real Life
When I am hosting spaces, I look at people's profiles and see where they are from and the interests they have. Kyle Hunter is a dev I noticed lived in the same city as me, and he likes craft beer and ice hockey just like me. So I said, here's a lesson on networking. "Hello Kyle, I see you like beer and hockey." He said, "I do." So I followed that up with "Ok, we live in the same city. Let's get a beer and watch hockey sometimes."
It worked. He and another dev, Chance, and I met for lunch one day. We talked shop, ate good food, and it just felt good to be outside the house and to talk programming.
Final Thoughts
Summing up, you know enough to talk programming with people that know more than you. Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions. Everyone was a beginner at some point, and they might have had the same questions as you. Share your code on GitHub, ask questions, join spaces and just talk to other devs.
Getting to know the devs I have become friends with, I wouldn't trade for anything. They push me in ways they don't know. It makes me want to be a better developer every day.
What's your networking story? Let's connect.