The most effective way to expand your network as a software engineer
It'll help you learn soft/communication skills, expand your network, and naturally attract opportunities
The answer to the title of the blog post is: coffee chats.
What’s a coffee chat?
In the context of the tech industry, particularly online, it refers to having a video call with someone in your network.
This could be with someone you already know, or someone you reach out to for the first time.
Despite the name, it doesn’t necessarily involve coffee. In fact, most people don’t drink coffee while doing a “coffee chat”. It’s more about simply having a conversation.
How to get started
I recommend starting with why. So ask yourself, is there a particular industry or profession you’d like to learn more about? Is there any specific tech that you want to know more about? Is there anything in particular you want some advice on?
Then, figure out who you want to reach out to exactly.
By asking yourself these questions, you’ll have a better idea about who you should talk to instead of reaching out to someone randomly.
Making the connection
You can try making the initial connections in one of the first few different ways.
First, you can try a cold outreach. Simply commenting on someone’s post on Twitter or LinkedIn or emailing/DM’ing them - all valid options.
Another good way to go about it is to create a connection with them beforehand.
On Twitter and LinkedIn, you can do this by commenting on their posts.
On GitHub, this may be more about contributing to open source.
On Kaggle or any other public forum like Discord, you may have public discussions first.
This approach of creating a connection beforehand will reduce the pressure on both of you because you’ll already be familiar with each other’s personalities and preferences. It’ll also give you a better idea about if you want to spend the time to schedule and have a conversation with them.
How to approach the conversation
First of all, how long should it be?
Most people seem to opt for a 25-30 min conversation.
However, I recommend going for 15 minutes.
By keeping it short, you’ll be forced to think about the most important questions/topics to discuss.
No matter how long it is, the most important thing is to respect the other person’s time.
Before the call, think about the objectives you want to achieve through the call.
Write down a list of questions if you feel like it’s necessary.
At the same time, though, understand that you’re talking to a person - not a robot.
So once you’re on the call, make sure to pay attention to the other person’s facial expressions and body gestures to see how the conversation is going.
Following up
Coffee chats don’t end at the point when you do the coffee chats.
The most important thing is the connections you create through those.
So, make sure to:
A) connect on Twitter or LinkedIn if it makes sense
B) follow up with them in a few weeks
If you decide to follow up, show that you’re willing to put in the work. Mention something about what they mentioned during the call, and describe how you followed through on that.
Did you take their advice? If so, how did it go?
If you didn’t follow their advice, did you discover a better path or approach?
Solid connections are not made overnight (or over a single coffee chat).
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