jsconfmx conference talk - how content & community can impact your career

full transcript

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awesome good afternoon it's good to see you all so this is my first time uh in Mexico and this is uh obviously my first time in guara and the people are amazing you all are amazing the food is amazing The Vibes are Immaculate um and so I'm very blessed to be here uh a little bit more about torque obviously a lot of you all came by uh our table thank you so much um we are out of we have uh two XL shirts left that's it all the shirts are gone um so thank you again for everybody who came by but I want to go

over what torque is again just for everybody um who may have not have come by our table yet so torque is a talent Marketplace so uh we help people get jobs uh as plain and simple as that uh specifically companies us companies come to torque to hire uh developers in Latin America and Mexico so uh again and we don't just do developers we do project managers business analysts product designers you name it if you are in Tech in any way shape or form I would love to have you on the platform uh if you're like well Taylor how do I get on the platform go

ahead and scan this code this code is uh the D I'll get out of the way uh this code is the direct access to our platform we will follow up with all of you after this uh conference today we do uh a lot of uh virtual networking so all the companies that come to us are fully remote um and so I'm really big on developing Community uh at scale across the world and so um I've been talking to a lot of community leaders I think there's a lot of stuff happening in December so you may see us back down here in December which I'm pretty

pumped about um so we love to have you on the platform second off again a little bit about me is I have been uh recruiting Engineers now for over 13 years I was your typical recruiter and I moved into the growth Community side of things um and then I was just recently hired on at torque to be their VP of global community so all the initiatives that our team is going to do is to make sure you do not feel alone in the job search that's incredibly important to me the job search can be terrifying the job search can be very lonely um and so

my goal is to make sure that you feel comfortable uh throughout the job search and you have a lot of resources and that you have a home base like what I want is I want torque to be home for you um where you can learn from others um so we're about to roll out some Ambassador programs um and a lot of other initiatives to help you throughout the job search so the talk I'm giving today is a power of community on your career now uh if you are here at this conference you understand the importance of community cuz you are here um but I wanted

to my goal for you by the end of this talk is that you want to uh grow more community and to do more things in your area because I would not be where I'm at today if it wasn't for my community and so I I first want to go ahead and give a background is that I moved to uh Nashville Tennessee has anyone heard of Nashville Tennessee country music yeah yeah so I moved to Nashville to uh do music I a drummer um and uh I did uh I drum for a few months and and what I realized is that uh I I needed to

find a job right um that there wasn't a long-term career in playing music and so what did I do I started to ask people that I knew in my network who do you know right how can I find a job who do you know who is hiring right and so there was this one girl that grew up in my hometown we moved to Nashville together um there's a group of us that moved to Nashville and she was like well I babysit for somebody and I said great and and they're looking for a recruiter I said great that's I don't know what a recruiter is but

signed me up so I interviewed and a few days later I got a job offer right so that's one specific area of community that how that's helped me in my career another part is I started to recruit software developers I started to recruit engineers and over the course of a few years I started to become friends I started to listen I started to go to conferences I started to go to meetups who in here actively at tends a Meetup monthly right a few of y'all right I started to go to meetups I I didn't talk right most recruiters if you know recruiters we are annoying

right we like to uh annoy you we have jobs you know please join us and we try to sell you and then we're just annoying right so I didn't do that I kept my mouth shut I listened I observed I tried to be in community with others a lot of people thought I was a developer because I just kept my mouth shut and so I I carried that through my career and then I started to throw meetups right then I started to throw meetups in Nashville I started to throw meetups across the country typically as a recruiter you cannot get out of the recruiting space

right if you are a recruiter it's very hard to transition it's a very it's it's a siloed career but my career took a drastic turn because of the community I built we are not meant to go through the job search alone we are not meant to go through through life alone we are not individuals as individuals we are not meant to go through life alone and so I beg you to get involved in community now most of you are waiting for somebody else to start Community right I talk to so many Engineers on a day and day out basis and they're like oh well I

want to uh I've always wanted to to uh play basketball with developers or I've always wanted to play football proper football with developers right but nobody starts everybody is scared and I will tell you this coming to conferences like this it can be uh obviously overwhelming like listen Taylor I can't start anything like this there's like 300 people are you kidding me I'm not asking you to start this right I've had a lot of people come up to me in my career they're like Taylor I I can't do what you're doing I can't do you know a virtual meet up I can't grow a Discord

Channel I can't grow a slack Channel and I'm like listen do you have five friends in Tech actually better yet do you have two friends in Tech everybody's got at least two friends right I hope and so my thing is is invite those people to do something you love I think the hardest part about Community is people think you have to build community around technical aspects of your career while that is important and I think coming to conference like this and learning about community and learning about technical topics from others is incredibly important but I want to encourage you if you have a favorite soccer

team if you have a favorite basketball team if you have a favorite restaurant and you just want excuse to go eat with your friends start inviting people to that right I started a dad group I have I have a dads and Tech group where I have a virtual Meetup once a month of dads that we just come together and talk about being dads that doesn't have to do with tech we never talk about tech but the fact of the matter is now we have over 50 dads from all across the world and I would love any dads in here I would love to have you

we have over 50 dad Dad s every month that show up to this Meetup and I had dads message me after the first virtual Meetup and said they were in tears afterwards they were crying because they did not realize how much they needed this community in their lives so my goal for you is I to get off the sideline right you sitting on the sideline and waiting for somebody else to start a meet up to start a group like this is not going to happen you have to be the catalyst another thing I want to talk about today is the power of content right so

how uh in terms of post on LinkedIn in terms of using LinkedIn it's an incredibly important tool it is the let me let me kind of this is incredibly important here don't miss this if LinkedIn is the only tool right now is the only platform where you can message any hiring manager at any company that you've ever wanted to work for and potentially start a conversation today let me say that again you could message any company that you've ever wanted to work for Google Zillow you know Amazon whatever you can message a h manager today and strike up a conversation and I still feel like

none of us are truly utilizing LinkedIn the way it needs to be utilized right now I've talked with a lot of people especially Engineers like Taylor I don't want to be a content creator right you see a lot of these devil individuals out here that are creating a ton of content it's very hard trust me but all I'm asking you to is to document what you learn right so for example yesterday or even today what I would do is I would make a post on LinkedIn talking about what you are learning at this conference that's it right A lot of people ask you like Taylor

I don't know what to post I never know what to post do I post you know do I post a technical thing do I post like what do I post all you have to do is document your journey that's all you have to do because here's the deal people are naturally nosy people naturally are interested in what you are doing there are so many people that I have rooted for online prime example I hired this one guy his name is Jason Torres Jason's on Twitter he's constantly on Twitter right and I've been watching him from afar he transitioned from being in the uh uh movie

industry he was um he worked on uh you know did some video work um and he was transition into the tech industry he was trying to find his first job in Tech and so basically I watched his journey I became fascinated with his journey because he just talked about the people he was meeting the Technologies he was learning the events he was going to I eventually got into a role the role I'm at now and I saw the work that he had done over the course of 6 months to a year because he posted about it he posted on Twitter he posted on LinkedIn right

hey I learned reac today it was very difficult hey I learned Java today I had a really tough time but here's what I learned from it right he talked about organizing meetups and I watched him from afar and now he is on my team I hired him because of the things he was putting out online so it's incredibly important to put yourself out there because what happens is and and and this is one of my notes Here consistent content creates consistent Community which then leads to careers right prime example I have never found a job through submitting my resum online never why because I've built

relationships in today's job world it is very difficult to find a job if you have not noticed it is very difficult the market is not great and so unfortunately as we as human beings we we basically confuse Pro uh activity with productivity right we're out here submitting hundreds of resumés online we're submitting not even hundreds thousands right I literally saw somebody on LinkedIn the other day say I post I I submitted 5,000 rums on LinkedIn or or on uh I submitted 5,000 rums across job boards and it hasn't worked and in my mind I'm like you you could have stopped after a thousand right and

so the so what I what I beg of you is to build relationships in person build relationships here at this conference is where you could potentially meet your next hiring manager right I would go to every single Booth every single booth and make sure you shake hands with everybody if you have not shaken hands with me please shake hands with me right because what happens is is one conversation today could lead to a LinkedIn comment in 6 months which could lead to a LinkedIn DM in 9 months which then could lead to you being hired by that person in a year that is how how

this works but the fact of the matter is if you are not putting yourself online for others to find you you're never going to be found now you're probably like well Taylor this isn't fair I don't this isn't fair cuz I've had a lot of people come to me like this is gamesmanship right I I have to play the game and it's like well I'm sorry this is just the way it is but also too yes yes you have to be discoverable in today's market to be able to land a job and so again post just once a day once every other day on LinkedIn

about what you were learning another thing I talk about too with creating content is um creating content is essentially interviewing your firstr interview at scale okay let me say that again creating content is essentially you interviewing for the first time with a hiring manager across the internet right because what that what does is I already knew going back to my Jason story I already knew Jason right why cuz I follow Jason I follow what he did I followed his learnings I already knew what I was getting when I interviewed him so then we jumped immediately into okay here's what I'm doing do you think you

can help boom hire he actually in true honesty he didn't even interview with me I literally called him up and I go hey I want to hire you he goes okay tell me about the job and I told him about the job he says okay accept because I've been following in him right another thing about creating content the power of community is you will find your tribe you will find your friends if you just post about AWS other people who like AWS will find you if you just post about Java other people who do Java will find you right for me I started posting about

job search content guess who found me everybody cuz everybody needs job search content right and so what what I encourage you today is for you to level up your career you I I truly believe that everybody in here is 90 posts 90 90 posts away on LinkedIn consecutively from something amazing happened in their career I firmly believe it I would not be where I'm at today if it wasn't for the community of the engineers that i' become friends with right most of my team a prime example if you go meet Briana anybody's met Bri at the table Briana she runs a massive conference called render

ATL right I interviewed Justin who runs render ATL on my podcast right I became friends with Justin Justin then invited me to become an ambassador for render ATL in their second year right by the way check out render ATL they're they're not paying me to say this I think it's a great conference so after the second year I became really good friends after the first year I was there I became really good friends with bana Briana and I stayed in touch I then became a host of render ATL the third year okay then she invited me back to become host for the fourth year guess

who I just hired Briana for this role do you see how this all works do you see how one conversation could lead to an amazing part of your career but the problem is is most of us again just sit here go through the motions right and listen I get it it is hard to network it is hard to put yourself out there I'm an introvert right this is exhausting to me right shaking everyone's hands it's exhausting I'm tired right I want to go to bed right and so but the fact of the matter is is I consistently show up and put myself out out there

and amazing things have come and happened to me and the problem is is that most of us are just very comfortable sitting here not talking to anybody taking some notes of what we're learning and then leaving and then we wonder why opportunities don't happen right you have to have activity right now in this market again this Market is very difficult and I'm trying to give you the tools to basically level up your career I think it's incredibly important right now uh another thing too when it comes to creating Community is that you really need to make sure that you stay in touch with people how

like I would I would basically stop your I would I would block out the next week on your calendar if you can and I'd try to follow up with everybody you met here because 90 to 95% of you will leave this conference and never speak to anybody who you met with here again when in actuality the followup of conferences are even more important than the actual conference I can go around meeting all 300 people that are here this afternoon I could shake every one of your hands but if I don't follow up with you afterwards what good is that going to do what good is

that going to do absolutely nothing and so again I encourage you to make sure that you are connecting with people and and and inviting people if you are local to guadara and you meet other individuals here are local go ask them to Coffee go ask them to learn I can't tell you the amount of Community Builders I've met like over the last 24 hours amazing Community Builders amazing and guess what I'm going I'm going to try to talk to every single person I met I'm going to try we'll figure it out I don't know how I'm going to do it but I'm going try because

that is where Community happens right another thing too we talk about building Community like well Taylor this all sounds great this sounds exhausting a right I don't know if I can have conversations another important thing on LinkedIn is you can literally just engage with people's post on LinkedIn I can't tell you the amount of friends that I have made because I have just consistently engaged with them on LinkedIn right I've liked a post I've said LOL I've said great job right and it's the consistency of that that builds on itself I think a lot of us as individuals I think again we mistake uh activity

per productivity when we go to conferences we shake a lot of hands we shake a lot of hands shaking hands at a conference and introducing yourself is the same thing as liking and commenting on LinkedIn it's the exact same thing right when you meet somebody here you're like hey what's your name here's my name what do you do here's what I do let's stay in touch sounds good you move on right that's pretty much how it goes that's the exact same transaction that could happen on LinkedIn and you could be in the Comforts of your own home again like I said I an introvert I

like to sit at my house with my family by myself right I I feel like I'm resonating we got some Giggles up here I feel like I'm resonating with some people here right and I will tell you this I'm very proud of myself in the community I've built from the Comforts of my own home but it's the consistency of it um I had an engineering manager uh or CTO rather of a react native startup uh consultancy post he goes I want to get better at LinkedIn but I don't know how to I want to start posting more but I do not know how to you

know what I told him I said go on your phone and delete every other social media app off your phone but LinkedIn because what happens is you start changing your behavior right you're like going to the bathroom right you pull up LinkedIn right you don't pull up Tik Tok you pull up LinkedIn or you don't pull up Instagram you pull up LinkedIn you don't pull up Facebook you pull up LinkedIn right and it's the constant engaging of individuals that will happen I promise you it works I don't know how right but human psyche is is if you like my post enough and then you need

my help for something I am going to help you because you have engaged with my content you have been interested in my content right so as we wrap up here uh for the next for the next uh you know five minutes or so I want to kind of get into some tactical things around some content Community real quick so if you're taking notes about like how to practically get started here's a few notes first off for Content pick a topic or a few topics you are passionate about so if you love Bitcoin post about Bitcoin if you love Java post about Java right stay consistent

with it number two make time on your calendar I don't know about you but if but if it's not on the calendar for me it's not getting done right if it's not on my calendar it's not getting the biggest the biggest issue when I talk to people they're like I don't have time to post you do you do you just haven't set the appropriate action behind how to do it right so block 10 minutes 15 minutes 30 minutes on your calendar every day post on LinkedIn next thing uh let's see here if you can talk specifically about any client work you're doing obviously not naming

names huge opportunity um and and also to you get try to get comfortable with filming yourself video right face open up your phone talk about what you're doing post about it video content goes a long way but that's kind of a 2011 class not a 101 class but stay consistent with writing but if you are interested in creating video content I would highly recommend it especially in today's market again from a community perspective stop sitting on the sidelines for someone else to start something stop sitting if you are passionate about the the smallest things just start inviting people right there's there are obviously there's a

lot of online communities out there go get involved open source communities just get involved right if you're sitting here and you're not involved my challenge to you if you remember anything from my talk is I want you to force yourself to get involved in some sort of monthly community in the next 30 days challenge yourself whether it's technical or not just challenge yourself be in communion with others again it can start with two people that's all you need right I started I know a lot of conferences I I had the opportunity to speak at another conference recently in um in Florida uh called Thrive Tech

conference right Thrive Tech conference you know how the conference started by 10 people hopping on a zoom call 3 years ago four years ago and now there's like 500 people at the conference and all it all it took was one Zoom call with a handful of people jumping on and then staying consistent with it another thing with Community consistency is everything consistency is everything if you are not consistently doing something monthly with what either you're doing or getting involved somewhere you are going to miss out that that action is one of the hardest things for creating Community right doing conferences like this they they need

to do it consistently right if if you do it for 3 months and fall off and you message me and they're like well I did it for I did it for three months and it didn't work I'll tell you you probably did it for about two to three years less than you should have right so again stay consistent so as we wrap up here I want to I want to leave you with a story that that I tell all the time because it just shows the power of community and the power of reaching out on LinkedIn and the power of networking with people so my

dad um went through the job search change recently he's not in Tech at all he owns a restaurant um and after 25 years he left that restaurant and essentially uh he called me goes Taylor I want to find a job but I don't know how to find a job and I said okay he goes Taylor the last time I was on the the job search the internet did not exist right and I was like well Dad you're really old um and so basically he was like well what do I do and I said give me I said give me a day and let me let

me kind of think about I talked to my wife and I was like how do I how do I communicate to my dad basically how to find a job and and and try to meet people she was like just challenge him in a like with activities that you did as a recruiter but like make it simpler so I called my dad up and I said Dad I said my chall to this is challenge to everybody in here too is try to meet with one person a day in your network and my dad's like what's my network and I said your network is people on your

phone your network is people on your LinkedIn my dad has a LinkedIn I made him get a LinkedIn I said that that's your network literally just open up your LinkedIn open up your phone and start reaching out to people so my dad said okay I'll do it so my dad started do lunches and coffees and he would call me after them and he like like Hey Taylor I I may have an opportunity I said that's great then he then I would ask him where it went he goes it didn't go anywhere I said that's okay again most opportunities most job opportunities that you find may

not go anywhere 99% of them don't but that 1% is the career opportunity that changes your career and so my dad again kept messaging me kept messaging me he was like he was like hey I think I'm on to something I said yeah I think you are too and then he calls me up one day he goes Taylor I found a job and I was like no way I said how did you do it he goes I messaged somebody on LinkedIn that I worked with 10 years ago 10 years ago and I said hey I said I'm looking for a job didn't know if you

were hiring it's been a long time would love to talk with you that guy eventually became his boss and my dad is still at that restaurant 7 years later so if my dad who is not in Tech can find a job on LinkedIn none of us have an excuse none of us but the fact of the matter is is my dad did the work my dad had the coffees had the lunches he checked in with people how are you doing let's talk again creating Community is not easy but it's absolutely worth it so again thank you all for listening to me over the last few

minutes I appreciate it hopefully this empowers you to not sit on the sideline and thank you so much I appreciate it [Applause] Video transcript service