One "Lifehack" That Will Boost Your Dev Career

Hello guys. In this video, let's talk about your dev career and one thing how you can really improve that without any code in this video. Let's get back to the roots. Some people following me for years may remember my videos from my car or general career videos from my office every Saturday. So, guess what? Today is Saturday and I have something important to tell you. So, I decided to get this tradition back for at least one video. I know a topic that I haven't talked about much which may really help your career and that's why I chose this clickbait-y title like life hack that may boost your career. Hear me out. But before I talk about that, I want to tell the great news for myself basically and for some of you guys. I am speaking at Laracon US this year. Probably my biggest achievement or one of the biggest achievements of my Laravel career. I will be speaking on the official main US stage. For so many years I've been YouTube only and my audience was only online, but I decided the time for me to step up and to speak in live mode to more people and luckily they accepted my talk. I will talk about Filament. So, if you want to come say hi in Boston in July, this should be amazing experience both for me as a speaker although I will be really nervous, I know, but still and should be great experience for you as attendee if you want to go there. And this is where we'll get to the main topic of this video. That life hack or one thing you may do to boost your career is exactly that. Attend live events. Laracons is just one of the examples. Hear me out. It's not about Laracons. I'm not promoting Laracon US specifically. I've attended a lot of them like 20 probably all together. Laracon US, EU, now I've been to India. Also, I always go to Laravel Live UK where I will also speak this year actually. Also, Denmark so more Laracons, but this is not specifically about Laracons. Laravel community culture is great and awesome, but I want to talk about something else and more global. So, after attending so many Laracons, I noticed one very important pattern. So many people are hired after Laracons. Also, within weeks or months after Laracons, I see many new collaborations like online joint like YouTube videos or joint projects or something that people do together also happen after Laracons. Also, some agreements happening kind of behind the scenes or which tool becomes part of the starter kit in Laravel or who is hired for some contracting work for Laravel core team also happens quite often at Laracons. I don't even mention random opportunities after Laracons where people invite you to travel somewhere to speak to local meetups, give you free software or discounts or something like that. That all happens after people get to know you in person in live mode in real life. Just a few examples. Pascal who works at Laravel on Inertia. He was hired because he attended a few Laracons and probably talked to Taylor or to the team and impressed them. Wendell, the author of starter kits now. He has been recently hired, but I saw him at Laracons at least a few times in Europe and probably some conversations were happening there. Ashley, the original author of Laravel Boost. I remember we were having a pint with him in London before Laravel Live UK. He went on stage to talk about his passion about AI and then a few weeks later I find out he works at Laravel now. Another recent example after Laracon India, Native PHP guys went there on stage to talk about their recent plans about Native PHP. Then they met Shruti who is now course creator for Native PHP. Go figure. So, these are just a few examples of random collaborations or hiring or partnerships or joint ventures happening after live events. But again, I want to reiterate it doesn't have to be big Laracon. It may be your local Laravel meetup. You may attend it or organize it. It may be 20 people or 30 people in your own city in your own country. I have attended in live mode local meetups in Austria, in Denmark, also virtually attended Laravel Serbia and then Bangalore and a few more places where people gather around the same topic Laravel in this case. And then again, I'm pretty sure after people get together, have a few drinks or something or just even without drinks, it's not really necessary, they meet each other, they trust each other more and trust is the key factor for any kind of hiring or collaborations. Because not sure if you noticed, but for example, if you want to get a job and you're looking for job ads on some I don't know Laravel jobs or Upwork or whatever, the ads for jobs come to those job boards only as kind of a last resort usually after the founders asked around their acquaintances, their friends, do you know someone who you trust? It's not only for developers, it's happening everywhere like do you know any plumber? Do you know a good dentist? Do you know the professional that you can trust? And that's the thing about trust. Live events, no matter big or small, the conversations that happen there, people get to know you in person, they feel your vibe and it's so different than collaborating or engaging online or Twitter or in YouTube comments or Reddit or something else. It's even different from Zoom calls or video calls. It's still not the same. Live mode is live mode and usually those conversations happen not on stage and often not even at the main event. So, at Laracons usually there are like day zero events and at Laracon US they planned a lot of things. Last year it was golf, I remember. This year it will be dodgeball and some crazy Lara prom by mostly technical guys. And guess what? People just talk shop at those events. Not even necessarily about Laracon or Laravel. They get to know each other as a person on a personal level which again increases the trust factor. Because for example, as a founder, as employer, when you're hiring someone, you have basically two questions. Can they deliver the work and can I trust them? And that can I trust them is not necessarily a technical factor. So, what I'm saying here is you should attend live events. Not even necessarily around Laravel. So, the more people get to know you and get to know what you do, what are your strengths, they get to know you in person again, I'm starting to repeat myself, the bigger your chance, the so-called surface of luck that someone would remember you and maybe recommend you when the opportunity arises. It may be really, really random and much later than Laracon. Some hirings I know happen like months later when they have the opportunity, a free spot or some new job position or expansion or something like that. So, I do advise you attend Laracons if you can afford it. It's not really a cheap thing, but if you cannot afford it, join local meetup groups. Or if there is no local meetup, why don't you start one? And yes, it's some work to market the event so people would turn up some marketing even if the event is free, but it's so, so worth it. So, you may organize the meetup not necessarily about Laravel in general, about web development, about AI, about cloud code, whatever you want. Promote the event in your local like social media groups, Facebook groups, Reddit, Discords, whatever you have in your country and city. And it may be five people turn up the first time, then the next time it will be 10, then 20 maybe. But then you will be known as organizer. That is even better status so people would remember your face, your name and again, if some opportunity turns up, they will remember you. It's kind of a well-known phrase in business that people buy from you if they know you, like you and trust you. And live events tick all of those boxes. So, this is kind of my main message. Attend live events, but my secondary message is if you attend and when you attend, participate. Be active. Talk to people. Say hi. Don't be shy. Don't stand in the corner because that ruins all of your opportunities. You don't have to sound very smart. Just come and say hi and just ask, can I join your circle? Or just ask, what is the topic that you're talking about? In the hallway, outside of conference, before the conference. After that, there's usually some after party event. Just be visible. And kind of related tip on that, I always advise people to learn spoken English. So, I was blessed like 10 years ago. I lived in London for 3 years. This is where I actually learned spoken English because I worked with Brits. I went to the bars with them and had all the experiences because before that, I live in Lithuania. This is a small country in Central Europe and we do have English as like primary foreign language and I did have good grades and I thought I could speak English until I arrived in London and started speaking and then I realized I cannot speak English and then I started to learn. So, the more practice you have, you can start a YouTube channel or podcast. It may be not even published. It may be for yourself. But basically, the more English you speak and yes, you will make silly grammar mistakes and yes, you will have accent, but it doesn't matter. Especially at international conferences, what matters is you're visible, you have interesting things to say, interesting point. You may be just an active listener and add just a few phrases to the conversation. But if people remember you for your thoughts and for what you do, then it may turn into many opportunities not only immediately after Laracon or after any event, but months later. You're never know. So, what do you guys think about this idea? Have you been hired or have any opportunities after live event? If yes, please share your story, so others would believe that I'm not talking nonsense here. In some sense, Laracons and live events are even investments in your future career. Yes, sometimes expensive, but totally worth it in my opinion. And I invite you to Laracon US to hear me speak, but I will always be in the hallway as well come say hi, introduce yourself, and just talk shop, talk about Laravel, but not necessarily only about Laravel. And from what I know, there are still tickets available, and they even sent me kind of a special speaker link that if you buy a ticket, they will know that it came from me. It wasn't really the goal of this video. I just thought that I need to talk about live events in general, but I will still put that link in the description below. So, if you buy tickets to Laracon US, it would be through me. I don't get paid for that personally, so it's not any kind of business deal. So, yeah, let's discuss in the comments below live events as a topic, and see you guys in other videos.