How students can connect to the local pro dev community
One thing we are often asked about is how can college students, who are aspiring to enter the working world as a developer, start getting connected with job opportunities in there area?
There are LOTS of ways to do this online – start up a blog, make yourself a known authority on a language or subject, etc. But let’s focus on connecting right in your home (or college) town.
MSDN Events – Some students go to these, but students are a seriously underrepresented crowd. Visit the site and see just how many events happen, and in how many town (not all big cities…these spread around). They are 4 hour FREE live events, covering both developer and IT topics, presented by Microsoft employees. You even get a free DVD with code samples, videos, .NET Rocks! episodes, and more.
What’s the best thing about it? You’ll run into 100 other people who work in companies in your town. Start shaking hands, saying hello, asking questions.
Go to a user group – There are no initiation rituals, no running around chanting in strange outfits. Just a bunch of people with interests like yours seeing cool presentations and product demos, and making connections. Where do you start? INETA has a great list here for groups focusing on Microsoft developer subjects. Show up, start shaking hands, or better yet volunteer to help organize the meetings.
The biggest challenge is getting out from behind the computer and introducing yourself. Once you get in the habit of that, the doors start to open wide.
-Kevin (Microsoft)
