Right. You must have guessed that I went to a meetup so I am writing this blog, but the one thing that you don't know is that they are actually fun !
So, a little introduction. Hi ! I am Priyanshi 👋 a newbie in devops field. But I have fair experience in Data Science and ML :) Afterall my core subjects are Math and CS in Delhi University. This summer I decided to get involved in open-sourcing and communities. Why you may ask ? Because I wanted to explore the fun perspective of tech and not just internship, placements and DSA on Leetcode all day. What I realized is that the world is big but the tech world is even bigger.
I started following Kunal Kushwaha on Youtube, work on my devops, get familiar with things like dockers etc (which I had no clue what it was before) and get myself involved in Community Classroom which was the best decision of my life.
Moving on, I came across this Delhi Meetup of Community Classroom which I was very unsure to apply to since I didn't have any experience like relevant Github contributions or projects, I didn't even have a tech stack and I had no idea what goes in a meetup. I just thought people talk about their established projects which I wouldn't understand since I am not as aware. Truth be told I was quite intimidated with thoughts like "Everyone there would be smarter than me, more experienced than me", "I wouldn't even get the tech jargon", "What will I even do" but I did apply nevertheless because I wanted to at least experience it in all honesty and then one day came
Meetup Day
Yup ! I got in and then came the day of event !! I reached a little late and Aditya Oberoi was already up on the stage talking about devrel. For anyone who wants to know the gist of devrel I am attaching a link to his article do give it a read 🙌
Then came the OG kunal himself on stage and told us about his journey of how he aimed to be a doctor but was standing there giving a speech about his tech journey LOL.
Some key takeaways from the whole day which really got my attention were
Don't get stuck in Tutorial Hells. Always ! Always ! Always ! Make projects to test your learning instead of getting stuck in just learning and never applying.
Let go of your Imposter Syndrome. The "where do I even start I don't know anything" can be a real bummer in your open sourcing journey for which Kunal suggested to follow a Top-Down approach i.e., learn by doing. Trust me, people are very helpful in communities and they can literally tell you how to get certain work done !
You don't have to just contribute to code ! Yes, organizations need people for documentation, articles and blogs, even maintainers. All in all plenty of opportunities to get started.
Make twitter your buddy. A lot of developers are there, you can get to know about a lot of great events via that and never miss out on opportunities of open-sourcing and events. Some of the accounts you can follow are Eddie and Pradumna. You can also use OSWC and goodfirstissue to find projects you can contribute to.
Last but not least. The only thing worse than an unpaid internship is the type of internship where you have to pay a fee.
Towards the end
There was a little surprise element where Kunal and Shivay talked about CFPs i.e., Call for Proposals and talked about how YOU can be a speaker in tech meetups. Basically, you need just a couple things like a good topic and abstract 😛. Linux Foundation is a your place to apply for CFPs.
We had breakout rooms too where people were networking and discussing about the day and I literally realized how each and everyone of us is just trying. Sure, there are amazing established folks as well but at one point even they were just working hard. After the breakout room 1-2 people of each group summarized their interesting insights and I had no plans to take the stage but my group collectively decided to throw me on stage and honestly I am glad they did because although I didn't have much to say I got cool pictures haha.
The overall experience wasn't intimidating at all. In fact it was the most wholesome, inclusive environment where people are genuinely passionate about tech and related stuff and trying their best to spread as much awareness about the same via communities. They are very welcoming, open-minded and happy to help. The day was packed with fun, food and swag. You can have a look here. To conclude, I will continue to apply to more such events and would like to encourage you to do the same as they can be terrific !
Bonus
