Fight for Landing a Dev Job: What I Learned by Attending a React.js Meetup
Tags: job, career, react, programming
Published: 2023-06-09 12:26:21



![ReactJS Girls sticker and organiser's pamphlet](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/z1pp9g4rfebjz9p0a579.JPG)





## Introduction:

In the competitive field of software development, securing a job as a developer can feel like a battle. I am a Junior full stack developer based in the UK with expertise in React, Typescript and Node. Since being made redundant at my previous company in March 2022, I’ve been on job hunt. In this article, I want to share my personal experience and the valuable insights I gained from attending a tech meetup, React.js Girls, as a job seeker.

## What is React.js Girls:

React.js Girls is a meetup event that features female speakers sharing their knowledge and experiences with React. Although the speakers are women,  anyone can attend it as its audience regardless of gender.

I was fortunate to secure a ticket to attend at the last minute. I learned about the event just a few days before the event day and found that all the seats were already taken. But I added myself to the waiting list in case of any cancellation. To my surprise, I received an email from the organiser on the afternoon of the event day, granting me a spot!

The event took place in central London, starting from 6.45pm. They provide us pizza, snacks and drinks for free, which not only made it easier to strike up conversations with other attendees but also allowed me to focus on the talks without being distracted by hunger.

We had three speakers covering topics such as React-testing-libraries/Jest, alternative React state management, and creating iInclusive workplace. While all the talks were inspiring and definitely worth digging into, I’d like to focus on what I, as a job seeker, learned from my first tech meetup experience. If you are interested in the talks, please find their recording on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@TechTalksYLD/featured) (As of 9 June, they haven’t uploaded the recording yet. But I’m sure they will!).

What follows are the takeaways from the event!

## 1. The power of meeting real people:

It is a cliche but meetup is indeed good for networking. Well, in my case, it was good to learn how to engage with fellow developers. While I couldn’t make extensive connections due to time limitations, I had meaningful conversations about their career paths, opinions about remote working, technologies in use, and projects they are involved in. These conversations were not solely focused on professional topics; we also discussed cultural experiences, travel and future plans. I personally believe this is the true power of meetups - the ability to  build connections and relationships by sharing our views on broader topics as humans, spending time together in the same space, and engaging in face-to-face conversations. In this respect, meetups offer a different networking experience compared to social online platforms.

## 2. Reflecting on my practices and learn from senior developers:

During the months of my job hunt, working on my personal portfolio project or learning new technologies left me feeling uncertain about my skills and knowledge. Attending the meetup allowed me to compare my own project experiences and learn from the practices and solutions shared by senior developers. Finding similarities in the challenges, solutions and the underlying logic between me and the speakers gave me assurance and confidence in my skills. I also learned new concepts, decision-making tips for testing, insights about a new state management framework and how it can be compared with Redux, and how to restructure our understanding of inclusivity to foster it in our team. The talks were based on real experiences, making the learnings highly adaptable and practical.

## 3. What didn’t happen: 

Although I had some hope to get feedback on my project and advice for job hunting or career development, they did not happen in this event. Apparently, this meetup was not specifically focused on those aspects and I paid extra attention to what other people wanted to talk about rather than seeking help for myself. But you never know if someone in the meetup might be willing to offer assistance on the spot. So it might be worth preparing to show projects, CV and questions in case such opportunities arise!

## Conclusion:

Attending a tech meetup could be intimidating or it may seem inconsequential if you’ve never experienced one before. But to me, it was a great experience in my quest for a dev job. Meeting like-minded people, gaining access to industry expertise, and assessing my current skills and knowledge had a positive impact on my motivation, connections and tech skills. 

Thanks for reading this article! If you have an open role at your organisation, please do let me know via [my linkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/miho-inagaki/).