Thread by @nirbhayvashisht, How to join a developer community?orHow to find mentors/developer friends?A detailed thread [...]

Nirbhay Vashisht

nirbhayvashisht

How to join a developer community?
or
How to find mentors/developer friends?

A detailed thread

For context I have been a part of various developer communities for ~3 Years. I have found that learning with people is the best and most effective way to learn.

So here are the ways you can join a developer community:

If you are a student

Many companies have their campus ambassadors/ Hack clubs / Developer club program that you can join or lead in your campus.

Some of my favorites:

Student Ambassador program @Microsoft (I am a part of this for 2 years now)
https://studentambassadors.microsoft.com/

Developer Student Club by @Google
https://developers.google.com/community/dsc

GitHub Campus Experts @github
https://education.github.com/experts

Hack Club @hackclub
https://hackclub.com/

GitKraken Ambassador Program
http://www.gitkraken.com/ambassador

For Non Students

1. http://Meetup.com
Find your local developer communities. Trust me you can find a lot of developer communities near you. Example: Where I live we have flutter Community, Java Developer groups, linux enthusiasts, javascript enthusiast.

you can also create your own community on meetup dot com.

Going to your local meetups will give you a lot of exposure. You can meet a lot of wonderful developers. You are most likely to find a mentor in a meetup.

I have met most of my developer friends through meetups.

2. Since physical meetups are in the bin right now you can also find virtual meetups.
@MLHacks organizes virtual workshops/meetups regularly.

3. Hackathons

- It is probably the best place to learn and grow as a developer.
- You get to meet so many wonderful developers.

> Talk to other teams.
Some conversation starters
- What they are building ?
- Their tech stack ?
- Which problem statement have they taken ?

> Secret hack :

Go alone or with a member missing. The organizers will pair you up with someone similar. This way you can easily network and make new developer friends. This is a gamble though.

I would recommend you to go alone in the meetups too.

Epic Reddit Developer Communities

r/computerscience

r/programming

r/coding

r/opensource

r/javascript/

r/learnprogramming/

r/ProgrammingLanguages

r/udemyfreebies

r/github/

r/input_your_programming_language_here

A few Epic Developer Communities

Developer Circle by @Facebook
https://developers.facebook.com/developercircles/