Do's and Don'ts at your very first Meetup

#typescript #meetup #webdev #beginners

Meet Ups are absolutely amazing. You get to meet a lot of new people who share the same interest.
It was the same for me as well. The only thing was my first meetup was an unknown topic for me.

So, this was my first meet up (Typescript). I wanted to go to so many other meetups but I simply didn't have the courage to go. I finally gathered all the courage to go to one. It was also because my brother was one of the assistant hosts. It took me a lot of time to finally go to a Meet Up. Let's have a look at the dos and don'ts :)

Don't be afraid to go to the Meet Ups. They are not that scary at all.

Being a beginner in the dev community, I somehow felt out of place in the meetup. I had absolutely no idea about typescript (though I have done some Node.js). Luckily, it was a talk for beginners and I managed to get some tips and gained knowledge of Typescript.

Do background research on what the meetup is about and try to get some knowledge beforehand.

So, there I was, a shy person sitting in a corner just listening to others. What I saw was everyone talking to everyone even though they met for the first time. It was amazing how people can connect so quickly.

Be proactive and try to talk to people.

Initiate the conversation if needed. All the people are there to meet new people as well.
During the talk, there was a moment where the recruiters were invited to share if there were any vacancies available at the moment. That was a surprise for me. I had no idea that the recruiters will actually come to meetup to find the suitable candidates. This was the opposite for me where I was applying to jobs and recruiters were not connecting to me. However, the position they were looking for was not on my criteria and I was a bit sad about it. So, I did not make an effort to talk to the recruiters. So, my fourth point is

Find recruiters and talk to them.

Even if you know that what they are looking for is not you but try to make an impression and keep them on your contact list. Who knows when that opportunity will come to you. (I felt this after I walked out from the MeetUp)

Conclusion

So, in overall, my first meetup somewhat of progress for me. I am a very shy and introverted person.
I do not socialize well. However, my first meetup has given me a lot of confidence for the next. I hope this will
help a lot of you beginners and introverted programmers like me to gain some courage to attend a meetup and
open up yourself in the dev community.