The Importance of Community in Building a Tech Career path

As a newbie getting started in Tech, The importance of joining a Tech Community can't be overemphasized, there are a lot of benefits that come with being part of one that will directly impact your career/learning journey.

Think about those days where you didn't have the motivation to learn/practice and you just needed an extra push, yes, that's exactly what a Tech Community is for, to support you and cheer you on.

Or when you were stuck on a particular project and didn't know who to call because all your friends aren't into Tech like you, with a Tech Community, it's easy to find solutions to a problem because there are usually people there who are more experienced and willing to help you.

Brian Solis said, “Community is much more than belonging to something; it is about doing something together that makes belonging matter”, being part of a Tech Community will give you the opportunity to network and share ideas with like-minded people.

When you're just starting your Tech journey, you'll definitely have a lot of questions to ask and a problem with practicing and learning everyday - consistency, if you're not in an environment where there are like minded people like you, you might end up frustrated and give up.

Tech Communities help all round in your growth, networking, job openings and internship opportunities, etc. Here are six (6) ways joining a Tech Community helps in building your Tech career path.

• Opportunity to network:

One of the major reasons people join tech communities is to network. Networking with like-minded individuals like you can bring about a great boost in your career and help you in your learning progress.

For example, hearing about how someone overcame a specific challenge can give you insight on how to deal with a similar challenge you're having.

There's also the fact that having a solid network can bring job opportunities, too. When you make time to hang out, discuss, connect and even collaborate with other people in the field it can lead to opportunities that you probably never saw coming.

• Helps you in staying consistent:

Deciding to do something is one thing and actually being consistent is another thing. Everyone of us had to deal with consistency at some point.

Being part of a Tech Community helps you stay consistent as some Tech communities usually have a system where everyone is assigned an accountability partner or you can look for an accountability partner within the community who you can be accountable to.

• You gain support and guidance:

It's easy to not give up and keep pushing when you have people supporting you and cheering you, that's one of the key fundamentals of a Tech Community.

You're surrounded by like-minded individuals who are passionate about your growth and will keep supporting/cheering you on even in your lowest days.

You also gain access to mentors and high profile people in the industry during bootcamps, events, webinars which will definitely help you in your Tech career path.

• Build your communication skills:

One of the things you need to excel greatly in a tech career is excellent communication skills.

You need it to effectively communicate your ideas and results, poor communication skills could make you look terrible at your job.

Being part of a Tech Community gives you the opportunity to build this skill as you interact with your peers, volunteer for speaking events and webinars.

• Easy access to opportunities and resources:

Job openings, internship opportunities, volunteering opportunities, training, bootcamps, books, etc. are usually shared within Tech Communities.

It will be hard to know about these opportunities if you're part of a community where it is shared.

The best part about Job openings is, you get recommendations from the community leader which could go a long way for you as these community leaders are usually well-known within the industry.

• Share ideas and collaborate with community members:

Sharing ideas and reaching out for collaboration is easy within a Tech Community because of the fact that everyone has a “close-knit” relationship and it's easy to reach out since you know everyone's strength and you know they'll be able to do the job perfectly.

When you get ideas for a project and share it with the community, you get valuable contributions and criticisms which could make your idea better.

So, if you thought you were doing better while doing things on your own as you started your Tech journey, you should see what happens when you join a Tech Community.

Join a community, upskill, gain experiences and form meaningful relationships.