I just want to preface this post with: I am not looking for a new job and I really love who I work with and what I do. If it weren’t for the people, I’d be jumping ship, but the group of guys I work with are awesome.
When I grew up, I was always pretty shy. Talking to strangers has always been hard for me, so making new friends was also hard. It was especially hard if the target of my conversation was a female. At some point in my life I started changing. A blind date, and 2.5 years later, my wife and I were married. If I were telling this story it would be 2 minutes long, but if you hear my wife’s side of story, you better bring chips. I’m not as shy now as I was when I was younger and I find people more interesting and curious now a days (as I’ve mentioned in the past).
Meet Ups
For the last several years, I have been attending several meetups. I have been attending the Google Developers Group (GDG) for about 7 years now (A little break here and there due to guitar lessons). I also try and attend the UtahJS or .NET Group. They are all pretty interesting and have unique attendees. The GDG is by far my favorite, because of the people and their interests. Personally, I like going to learn new technology and to get out of my comfort zone by meeting new people. You have to not take it personally when the introvert sitting next to you doesn’t want to talk.
HackerX
I think I received an invite in my email or found a link to an invite and signed up. I thought it was something completely different, because I didn’t go research it. It sounds like a bunch of people hacking away on computer stuff. Fun right? I didn’t find out what I was in for until a few days before the event. Like it says it is a “Networking and recruiting event”. It’s the perfect place for someone looking for a job! The two events I’ve been to have had about 15 companies there looking for candidates.
How it works
The companies are setup in 4 rows with about 4 to 5 companies in each row. The candidates line up on one side and work their way down through each company. “Speed” Interviews take place at each table with each company for 5 minutes. It takes 20-25 minutes to go through each line and it is a 2-hour event, so you do a lot of waiting and you have to scramble at the end to talk to companies you missed out on. The companies are just as tired as you are and they sometimes get a little grouchy if you are just trying to find out about the company and not looking for a job. haha
Networking
If you are shy or came by yourself, you are going to be pretty bored waiting in line, especially if you didn’t rush to the front of the line. You can do the math, and figure out how long you have to wait to see the first company if you are slow. The best part of this event is networking with the introverts (“nerds”) in line with you.
I’ve met some pretty awesome people in line. There are all sorts of people in these lines. Programmers find their jobs pretty interesting, and when we try and tell others about what we are doing, most audiences are bored. For instance, if I tell my wife how I coded up a bunch of unit tests to test my code, she tries to act interested, but I can see her eyes glossing over. When you talk to other nerds, they usually get it, or are truly interested. It’s awesome and that is what makes it fun to talk to some of these people. I also find it interesting to find out about them personally.
Companies
This time around, I got inline and only had to wait 25 minutes before my first interview. The company hosting the event had a guy going through the line talking to the candidates and taking resumes. Of course, I didn’t bring any but we chatted for a bit.
I went through the line and talked some pretty cool companies. They have swag and various things to hand out. It’s fun to learn about the companies and what they do. I made it through another line of companies and talked to a few others at the end.
I survived
It was a great experience. The fear wasn’t as great this time, but I also had nothing to lose. It would be a lot different if I was looking for a job. I could write more about the people I met. I will post the most interesting individual I met here. Is name is Admiral Potato. I’m glad I talked to him. He has a lot of interesting interests. He can be found here on tumblr.com and on twitter.
A few companies that I think would be great to work for are:
https://degreed.com/ – They allow you to work remote and work in C# and Javascript
HireVue – They use some interesting technology. They help companies make better hiring decisions. Video Conferencing Interviews? They use AI to predict information about the candidates going through the interview process.
Parakeet – Vacation Rental Home Automation. I’m interested in home automation. They work in Python, which is interesting. I’ve used it in a few projects and on some pet projects. It’s fun.