Advice for an introvert jr dev who wants to give talks at local meetups?

Comments

[Stephen Belovarich]

Join your local chapter of Toastmasters. While I don’t have direct experience, I know people who felt introverted come out of Toastmasters feeling confident about public speaking.

Everyone has some fear of public speaking in the beginning, so you are not alone. Practice is key. If you can find some way to make presentations in front of a small group of people that’s a good start.

Having well polished slides in your presentation goes a long way. Give your slides a theme or some style. Don’t just state a problem and how to solve it. Tell a story. We live in societies where narratives reign. People connect with a narrative more.

If you plan to do live coding, have code snippets on hand you can easily paste into the code, unless you type extremely fast, which I have also seen, but that is rare. Keep it simple in the beginning.

I went from being terrified of public speaking to being a speaker at national conferences. You can do it too! Best of luck!

[andre aliaman]

Before:

1. Create a point about what you want to talk. Write down in your hand, paper, everywhere do you think you can access easily.
2. Try to practice in front of a mirror, or your inner circle.

In talks:
Talk for yourself. focus on your topic. Don't think about audiences doesn't like/like too much, They just focus on the events --> that's my mistake I did and make me nervous in the middle of talk.

[Teresa Holfeld]

I had the same problem. Introvert and super shy, but I was asked to give talks. So I went to my aunt for advice who is a rhetoric teacher. Here's what she taught me:
It's all in the preparation. Read about storytelling and the hero's journey. Outline what you want to say. Then practice your talk ten times. You need to know your words by heart. If you practice it so many times, it will get easy. Don't record yourself, that will only depress you. And always remember: you know something others don't, that's why you do the talk in the first place. Be proud of yourself!

[Jack Herrington]

Pick a subject you know well.

Practice your presentation enough times to have the flow done, but not so much that you are memorizing word for word.

Try to relax a little beforehand.

Realize that nobody is there to be critical of you and everyone is going to be supportive.