Networking for Software Developers

Stop waiting for Microsoft or Google’s career page. They might just find you at a hackathon. 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝟑/𝟏𝟎 – 𝐇𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐬 & 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 You may have been surprised by the hook line and wondering how? In college, I used to believe hackathons and coding competitions were important, But only for adding certificates to my resume, gaining experience and adding achievement. But I was wrong, When one of my friends got selected at Amazon through a competition called Amazon Wow. That is when I realized hackathons and coding contests are not just about experience, They have become direct hiring funnels. Today, many companies prefer hiring through hackathons instead of waiting for job applications. Here are some well-known competitions and the companies behind them: 1. Big Tech like Google (Code Jam, Kick Start), Microsoft (Imagine Cup), Amazon (HackOn, Alexa Prize). 2. Large MNCs like Flipkart (GRiD), Amazon India (HackOn), Infosys (HackWithInfy), TCS (CodeVita). 3. Finance giants like JPMorgan (Code for Good), Goldman Sachs (GS Hackathon), Morgan Stanley (Code to Give). 4. Startups like Razorpay, Zomato, and Unstop-run challenges now hire directly from leaderboards. That is why are hackathons the new hiring trend? Because they reveal what no resume ever can. In just a few hours or days, companies can see: ➡️ How you think under pressure ➡️ How you collaborate in a team ➡️ How you turn an idea into something real Opportunities do not always knock at your door, Sometimes, they come disguised as a weekend hackathon you almost skipped. So if you are preparing for a tech role, do not just practice alone in silence, Show up at hackathons and compete in coding contests. Because your next offer letter may not come from the placement cell, It might just come from the hackathon you decide to join this month. #Hackathons #CodingCompetitions #Google #Microsoft #FlipkartGRID #CodeVita #HackWithInfy #CareerGrowth #SatyamSeries

Hate pitching yourself on LinkedIn? Here’s a system that builds warm tech connections without the awkward sales pitch. I call it the 10:3:1 outreach system. Last week I spoke with six tech professionals in Sydney & Melbourne. All job hunting. None had a system. Here’s how to fix that 👇 Step 1: Search strategically - Type the role you want next: “Engineering Manager”, “Product Designer”, “Tech Lead” - Filter by location (Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington) - Narrow by industry (IT, Startups, SaaS) - Add “Current Company” if you’ve got a shortlist Step 2: Save 10 profiles per week Look for: - Shared background (bootcamps, unis, career switches) - Companies you admire - Mutuals in common Step 3: Personalise connection notes (everyone loves a compliment) Templates that work in ANZ tech (see image below for a standout message): - Just read your post on [topic] relevant as I’m exploring [similar role/space]. Would love to connect. - Noticed we both worked in [X] / follow [Y]. Always keen to meet folks solving interesting problems. - Saw your profile while exploring [industry/role]. I’m in transition and learning from people doing solid work. Thought I’d say hi. Step 4: Engage with 3 of their posts - Leave thoughtful comments (not just likes) - Highlight a takeaway or ask a follow-up - If they haven’t posted, check what they comment on Step 5: Nurture 1 relationship weekly - Ask a genuine question about their team, tech stack, or journey - Offer value (share a resource, intro, or perspective) - Suggest a virtual coffee if it feels natural Why this works in ANZ tech: ✅ Recruiters and hiring managers will notice consistency over volume ✅ You stand out by being relevant and different (just like the person in the image below), not pushy ✅ Trust travels faster than a CV Start small. Even one reach-out per week is plenty. This isn’t automation. It’s visibility, credibility, and real conversations. I share weekly systems like this for ANZ tech professionals job hunting, just follow me for more and safe this post for later.

Don’t Skip This Step in Your Partnership Program: Signing partners is the easy part. Integrating with their systems and training their teams? That’s where the magic happens. Too many companies sign partnership deals and then neglect the integrations. One leader I spoke with had to explain to his CEO that without integration, the partners couldn’t sell the product. The CEO didn’t buy it—and it cost the partnership program. Your partners won’t sell something that doesn’t work with their systems. Here are 4 actionable steps to help you start building integrations that work: 1. Engage with Partners Early to Understand Their Needs Before jumping into development, sit down with your partners and understand the specific systems and tools they use. This avoids unnecessary delays caused by building integrations that don’t align with their processes. 2. Collaborate with Product Teams on a Clear Integration Roadmap Work closely with your product and engineering teams to develop a roadmap that details when and how integrations will be built. Ensure it’s aligned with the overall partnership goals and prioritized based on impact. 3. Test, Iterate, and Improve with Pilot Integrations Start small by launching pilot integrations with select partners to work out any kinks. This will allow you to troubleshoot issues and refine the integration process before scaling across all partners. 4. Invest in Partner Training and Documentation Integration is only part of the equation. Make sure your partners know how to use your product effectively once the integration is live. Provide easy-to-understand documentation, training sessions, and ongoing support. Successful partnerships require integrated systems to deliver mutual value. By engaging partners early, collaborating with your product team, running pilots, and investing in training, you’ll set your program up for long-term success.

After working on both sides of developer communities as a member and as a DevRel/Community Engineer, I've learned that 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴, but the approach changes dramatically with scale. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀:  1. Focus on trust and genuine belonging  2. Create easy access (Slack links with clear CTAs on page)  3. Invest in community hours, swag, and appreciation  4. Build your initial champions who become your growth engine  5. Establish regular meet-and-greets with actionable content 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀:  1. Avoid the "support center trap" where engagement dies  2. Balance support queries with continuous engagement  3. Leverage demand gen opportunities while maintaining community spirit  4. Scale content efforts strategically (freelancers, agencies, champions) The key insight? If you miss the foundation phase, large communities become glorified help desks. Your early adopters are your future evangelists, so invest in them first. What's been your experience building developer communities? Drop your thoughts below! 👇 #DeveloperRelations #CommunityBuilding #DevRel

This never works: → Startup Idea → Plan → Design → Coding → Marketing→ Audience → 😣 This works (sometimes): I launched 20+ startups using the following playbook: Audience → Problem → Idea → Validation → Waitlist → SEO → One Feature MVP → Iterate → Marketing → Success. See a full breakdown of each step 🧵 : 1) Audience. - X, Linkedin, Reddit, DevTo, HackerNoun, - 3 hours daily. - Never skip it, just like a gym. Every idea must start with an audience (unless u r a Steve Jobs level genius). It'll help you build smth people actually want. 2) Identify the Problem. - Read social media for discussion. - Be active in posting/replying/engaging. - Chat with 20 people daily. - Be part of communities, start your own. - Work for them All this will lead to you spotting common pains, problems & dreams of your audience. 3) Pitch in the Idea. Use Google Keywords Planner, and google search autosuggest to brainstorm ideas. Pitch ideas to your audience at least a few a week. Discuss ideas in DMs, at least 10 times a week. 4) Validation. Every week, validate at least 1 idea by - posting on social media - replying to other posts - DMing people - Emailing(cold and warm) Pitch it really short and clear. Don't fking start "I hope this email finds you" 5) Waitlist. Don't waste your time here, and just use this template: https://lnkd.in/evcWbXH6 Don't overload it with text. The top hero section must explain it all with a title+subtitle. The rest of the page is purely for SEO purposes. No real humans gonna scroll and read. 6) SEO. Once u see people on the waitlist, it’s a sign to bet on this project. Invest time into SEO! My SEO combo: listingbott.com for backlinks from directories seobotai.com for blog indexrusher.com indexing wrapifai.com for building mini tools 7) One Feature MVP. Focus on one key feature and drop the rest. Find a boilerplate on http://nextjsstarter.com if you're a coder. If not: a) Go for NoCode or AI Code( @unicornplatform , @bubble or @softgen ) b) Hire someone on https://mvpwizards.com 8) Iterate With Users. - Talk to every user from the waitlist every day via X or Linkedin. - Become best friends. - Make them feel they are your product team. - They will love it, be more loyal, and help a lot with the roadmap. Be open when you speak. Don't be defensive. 9) Marketing. - Share all you do on social media daily. - Spend a few hours a week on SEO. - Publish 1 blog post a week (hackernoon, IH, reddit...) - Build a free side project for traffic to the main one. - Browse social media for relevant posts to reply with your tool 10) I practice what I preach, list of all my startups: johnrush.me

𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟎+ 𝐡𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐰𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐝… 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞. 𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫!! Not flashy. Not code. Just 3 shared docs that made our team 𝟏𝟎𝐱 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 + 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝. Here’s exactly what they are (and how to make them work for you): 👇 📄 𝟏. “𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐃𝐮𝐦𝐩 + 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐱” 𝐃𝐨𝐜 Before building anything, we brain-dump 7–10 ideas + rate them on: -Relevance to theme -Personal connection to the problem -Uniqueness -Feasibility in 24–36 hours ✅ Helps avoid “cool idea but impossible to finish” traps. ✅ Keeps the whole team aligned from Hour 0. 📄 𝟐. “𝐓𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐁𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 (𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐞𝐱𝐭 😅)” No fancy Trello — just a doc with: - Backend tasks - Frontend tasks - Logic/ML tasks - Demo + pitch prep Each person picks their area early, so we don’t overlap or wait on each other. We color-code: Doing, Done, Blocked. Simple. Clean. Stress-free (well, almost 😅). 📄 𝟑. “𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐩” 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 (𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨!) While building, one teammate starts documenting: -The “Why” behind the project -1 line summary anyone can understand -Bullet points for the final pitch By the time we demo, we’re not rushing to write slides. We already know what story we’re telling. These 3 docs saved us from: 🚫 Confusion 🚫 Last-minute scrambling 🚫 Messy project direction And took us to: ✅ Better teamwork ✅ Clearer builds ✅ 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐬 🏆 💡 Next time you join a hackathon — create these 3 docs before the first line of code. You’ll be shocked how much smoother everything runs. If this helped, tag your team or drop your own hackathon rituals below 👇 Let’s all stop reinventing the chaos 😄 #HackathonTips #TeamProductivity #HackathonDocs #BuildBetter #PitchReady #CodeWithClarity #InnovationInTeams #TeamCodeBlue

I’ve seen many talented students doing everything right — learning, building, applying — yet feeling stuck. Here are a few practical things that helped me and can help you move forward: 1. Learn in public: Start sharing what you’re building or learning. Even small posts add up. This builds credibility and visibility. 2. Build meaningful projects: Instead of cloning another to-do app, pick real-world problems. A small tool that solves a personal or local issue often makes for a better showcase. 3. Use GitHub and LinkedIn smartly: Keep your GitHub pinned with 2–3 strong projects. On LinkedIn, talk about your learning journey, not just results. 4. Upsolve problems after contests: Upsolving teaches more than just solving. Stick with a hard problem until it makes sense — that’s how intuition builds. 5. Build your network: Join Discord servers, reply to LinkedIn posts, attend free online events. Most people won't refer strangers — so become less of a stranger. 6. Don’t ignore fundamentals: Even in interviews for dev roles, you’ll be asked about DSA, OS, DBMS, and networking. Allocate time weekly to revise these. Resources to get you started: CS50 – Harvard’s Intro to Computer Science (free) LeetCode Patterns – NeetCode OSSU Computer Science curriculum (open-source) Frontend/Backend Roadmaps Tech Twitter & LinkedIn — follow developers, not just influencers. You’re not behind — You’re doing more with less. And that grit will compound. If you’re in this phase right now — stay consistent. Follow Upasana Singh #softwareEngineering

This may surprise C-suite execs, but your partners don’t work for you. Yesterday I spoke with the CEO of an early-stage SaaS startup. He was confused why, after inking a bunch of partner agreements with “excited” new partners, all of their new “partnerships” fizzled. So I asked him one simple question: “Did you set and align on goals and expectations with these partners?” As soon as he heard the question a lightbulb went off. The answer was NO and he immediately understood why this was a mistake. I hear this all the time... Teams are so focused on getting partners “over the line” they skip critical alignment. Here are a few important things to discuss with a new partner: - What level of partnership the partner would like to achieve - Each partner’s expectations and goals for the partnership - What resources each side can commit to the partnership - How quickly this partnership could be rolled out widely - How you can make the partner more successful - What the partner can expect from your team - How many customers this could be a fit for - What successful partnership looks like - How your product or service works - How your partner program works - What you expect from their team This simple list will make all the difference in how a partnership tracks. Do it as EARLY as possible. If the partner isn’t interested (or willing) to discuss these topics they aren’t bought in. Things end how they begin. So begin your partnerships right.

When I used to mentor people for job hunting, I noticed one common mistake—they only started networking when they needed a job. By then, it was already too late. I always told them, job hunting is not just about applying. It’s about building visibility long before you need a job. Here’s what I advised them to do: 1️⃣ Engage with industry content daily – Spend 10 minutes every day commenting on relevant posts. This makes your name familiar to recruiters and industry professionals. 2️⃣ Reverse-engineer your ideal job – Find people who already have the role you want. Study their profiles, note their skills, certifications, and career path, then bridge your own gaps. 3️⃣ Leverage your alumni network – Search for graduates from your university working in your target companies. A simple message like "Fellow [university] alum here" can open doors. 4️⃣ Position yourself as an expert – Post about your projects, challenges you solved, and industry insights. The goal is to be seen as someone who understands the field. 5️⃣ Network with the right people – Don’t just cold message hiring managers. Build relationships with employees in your target companies first. They are more likely to refer you. 6️⃣ Follow a structured approach – I suggested the 3-5-1 method: Engage with 3 posts daily Connect with 5 relevant professionals weekly Share 1 valuable insight from your experience 7️⃣ Monitor job movements – When someone in your target company gets promoted or changes roles, reach out. Congratulate them and use it as an opportunity to start a conversation. I have seen people land jobs without ever applying, just by following these steps. Job hunting is not about luck. It’s about strategy.

If you run a remote team, this is worth a read. Might be the coolest thing I've seen in ages. (Not perks. Not ai.) Something that makes life a bit better  We have 100s of devs across the Philippines, LATAM - everywhere. Some hybrid. Some fully remote.  Different clients, skills, experience etc Same thing: → Working solo most of the time. Heads down. Sometimes isolated. → Even when in the office. It kept reminding me of founder peer groups like EO, YPO, Hampton - Private forums where founders can share what's going on Talk openly. Share struggles. Help each other. No judgement. But founders aren’t the only ones who need that. Devs feel it too. Everyone does. So we asked: What if our devs had peer forums? Same rules: → No managers or direct team mates → Confidential safe space → Real talk on life and work We piloted it: Small groups (max 8). Same cohort monthly. Format: Share 1 work win + 1 work challenge Share 1 personal win + 1 personal challenge The group picks / votes 2 challenges from the group to deep dive on No advice - just experience-sharing The feedback? → One of the most special things I’ve done → Raw conversations → New real friendships → A safe space to learn and share ideas  What I learned: Peer learning might be the strongest form of learning Connection doesn’t just happen in remote - it has to be intentional Create the structure. Now they run the show They’ve planned their own hike next month I love this stuff. Thought it was worth sharing I think it could work anywhere - across roles, functions, or industries V cool to catch up with the pioneer group just now Danica Julius Darwin Stephanie Trishia Nicole Patricia. We told dad jokes. 🧡 Would love to hear if anyone else is experimenting with community building ideas 👇