Community works for many people and it will work for you too.
We are talking of huge benefits that you won't easily find in other places.
Tech communities are places where you find other techies like you. While there, you will enjoy many advantages.
Below are 5 examples of such gains.
(They are in alphabetical order).
1. Growth
You will never be the same again.
You can read that again and again for yourself. Rest assured that once you are actively participating in your community, you will grow.
Progress is something you will continuously record while in the community.
As you interact with people, you learn from them and discover better patterns of doing several things. You will notice the difference in yourself over time and will appreciate the fact that you are involved with a tech community.
Track your abilities and achievements now. Contribute to your tech community. Check your abilities and achievements after a period of time. Then admire how much you have grown.
2. Experience
There is so much to do in tech communities. On a frequent basis, you can code, design, lead, speak, write, ... for your community.
Then on unique chances, when events are organized, you can do other things for the community towards the events' preparations and execution. Such things include preparing slides, preparing the venue, promoting the event, searching for collaborations, sourcing speakers, ...
All these things are of course volunteer activities. By doing them, you can boast of the experience that comes with them. You can also include such volunteer experiences in your LinkedIn profile.
You can tell your community activity stories on online platforms (blogs and social media). This will build your online presence. People will quickly know your abilities once they land on your online profiles.
During job interviews, you can narrate how you worked in the community, the problems you faced, and how you solved them. Such will easily grant you the job in question.
You will value working in the community because it gives you a platform to act freely. There is no boss to command or sack you. You have the opportunity to work in teams of great minds. You will gain insights into how corporate things are done (for free).
You will especially value your community experiences if you've never had any professional experience before. Even if you have formally worked, adding community to the list is still a boost.
You will gain experience.
3. Exposure
You will be exposed to diversity. You will be capable of networking with others in the community.
You will learn from different technologies. You will have a great overview of various digital skills, programming aspects, and software tools, just because you are in the community.
In fact, you will learn about other cultures and will understand how people think.
People will know you and will refer you for your skills when needed. You will be nominated for jobs because you are part of the community. You enjoy free marketing.
Exposure is also for your online presence. Your social media activity and followers will grow too. If you are a content creator, you have automatic leverage for exposure.
4. Mentorship
Tech communities comprise persons with various levels of expertise. Beginners, intermediates, and pros are found in the community.
In this space, people with different experiences share their stories. They will tell you the things they did that worked for them. They will tell you what you should avoid out of their experiences.
Mentorship is priceless. You grow faster when you appropriately follow mentors. The journey will be smooth.
Mentorship is one thing we find in tech communities that make communities thrive.
The best part? You gain mentorship. And when you become that good. You become a mentor too. And you can give back to the community.
5. Swags
SWAG: Something We All (Don't) Get
We all sincerely can get swags because it is not easy to make a great number available for all community members.
Either way, swags are branded items shared with community members.
They could be caps, mugs, polos, pens, stickers, ...
Swags are a cool way to brag that you are part of the community. Designing your laptop and other assets with stickers makes them look prettier.
Swags too help with promoting the community. People get to know that such communities exist when they inquire about the brands, designs, or logos, attached to swags.
Aside from swags, you can also win prizes for participating in competitions, giveaways, and hackathons.
...
There are many other benefits of being part of a tech community.
However, you will gain these and other benefits on the condition that you are an active member. You need to follow up and be part of the process. Attend events, be part of conversations, and join other activities.
Remember to keep to your community's code of conduct.
Cheers to your many community gains.
