Why you should give a…. thought?
Tags: teaching, learning, technology, community
Published: 2019-03-19 07:42:14

---
title: Why you should give a…. thought?
#learning #career
published: true
tags: teaching,learning,technology,community
canonical_url: https://medium.com/@irinascurtu/why-you-should-give-a-thought-2161d411d7f8
---

 **Note for devs**

As time passes, we get comfortable with the project we are working on, with the team, the management, the technologies, the domain and everything that is around us.

We find ourselves at a point where we have the right a amount of happiness in our day to day job, to just stop seeking challenges. Time is flying, it becomes scarce, our willingness to learn diminishes…

But what will happen in a few years, when the technology trends will change, and we stopped learning a while ago?

**The term “senior dev” will have other value, except….old dev?**

A lot of devs with a lot of experience and passionate about their work, don’t dare to step forward and deliver workshops or talks, or be involved in teaching activities, because they think they don’t have public speaking skills or their topic of interest is not cool enough. Well…they surely have a lot of expertise, and guess what?

**If you don’t practice, you can’t perfect those skills!**

To be honest, ‘senior dev’ should mean more than xx years behind you. Seniority should be also given by your willingness to share your knowledge, grow people around you, and by your level of involvement in teaching and mentoring others.

You should bear the responsibility of leading by example. You shouldn’t wait for others to take the lead, get involved, show others that, **if you can, they can too, be an inspiration.**

Most of us are involved in interviewing future colleagues, and we often complain about not finding the right person because their know how is not right.

Have you ever though to help others grow, so they can be better prepared at your interviews? Or even better… about determining others to join your company just **because you are there,** because you could have an impact on their career path?

> An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

> Benjamin Franklin

The technical know-how is an expiring asset. It becomes out of date as soon as a new technology appears,or a new version is released, so it’s up to you to to try to delay its expiration date.

The first step towards **getting involved** , is to **be part of a technical community** , where you can have the perfect environment to change information, ideas, experiences and “lessons learn” around technology or project types, and why not, meet new people.

That environment gives to any member the opportunity to see what were other people’s approaches in certain contexts, what are the issues they faced, what are the benefits of choosing or applying a solution over another.

Yes, we all know that all the questions find their answers on google, but even so: wouldn’t it be cool to have real people to meet? A community where you can ask questions, debate, or why not, where you can brainstorm projects ideas around business domains or with social impact?

Actually, a community can teach you how not to reinvent the wheel, and stop doing others people’s mistakes, learn best-practices, written ones or not, find out about new industry trends, technologies, and develop your skills.

**A technical community is the connection between people and their passions** , and this goes beyond the companies they work for, today.  
For that reason, you should join the **right community,** and invest in it by attending their meetups.

What makes a community right for you?

Well, first of all, it should be a community driven by people and not by companies. The ‘meetup’ like events powered by a single company, are usually made with recruiting or marketing purposes, and usually have a life directly influenced by budgets. No matter what is the agenda behind these ‘gatherings’, **a meetup/community is about people, learning, willingness to share knowledge, growing, going the extra-mile, meeting new people, leadership, volunteering and many things, but not a company.**

If you don’t belive me, or think i’m biased, maybe [Scott Hanselman](https://medium.com/u/1e5b2bca5b5e) will be more convincing. Watch his [Get Involved!](https://app.pluralsight.com/player?course=get-involved&author=scott-hanselman&name=get-involved-m6-usergroups&clip=0&mode=live) course on Pluralsight!