Networking outside the workplace

Software Engineering Intern at Taro Community2 months ago

I went through Taro’s networking course and I noticed that a lot of the advice on deepening relationships are geared towards colleagues. I was wondering how you can effectively deepen relationships with people (ie friends) outside your company?

I have a lot of friends in SWE and I’d be comfortable asking them for a referral, but since I haven’t worked with them personally, they wouldn’t have enough ammo to vouch for my professional experience. I love hanging out with my friends but I’m wondering if there are ways I can get more out of my relationships from them from a professional standpoint?

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55 Comments

Discussion

(5 comments)

1
Elliot Kang
•Software Engineer
2 months ago
One way you can work on live code with friends is by going to a hackathon. There's a bunch in the SF Bay Area
- 0
  Helpful Tarodactyl
  •Taro Community
  2 months ago
  Aren't those mostly for college kids though?
  
  Edit: Didn't realize OP is an intern, nvm
0
Thoughtful Tarodactyl
•Taro Community
2 months ago
Question for Alex/Rahul: how can we make the best use of Taro to build genuine relationships here?
- 0
  Rahul Pandey
  •Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
  2 months ago
  One of the best ways to build genuine relationships is to provide lots of value. There are lots of ways you can do this:
  
  Share your experience with interviewing for a certain level or role.
  
  Offer to be a beta-tester for someone's app.
  
  Host an in-person meetup at a coffee shop (Taro will pay for everyone's coffee).
  
  Hold interview prep events where you share something you learned and facilitate mock interviews.
  
  To create an event: https://www.jointaro.com/events/create/
0
Rahul Pandey
•Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
2 months ago
The point of a referral is to vouch for someone being a strong employee. For a software engineering role, speaking to technical ability helps. BUT there's a lot more to being a good employee than just technical ability. For example, I've seen some version of a referral like this many times in my career:

"This person was a D1 tennis player, which they did while having a high GPA in a demanding major. So I know they have an amazing work ethic."

"This person picked up chess last year and I saw them rapidly improve within 9 months to undeniably become the best in our friend group."

Can your friends refer you while sharing tidbits like this? This is more social than professional, but still carries a lot of weight.