Introduction

In the last article, we talked about the work that went into building the current value of TechIsHiring and a few hurdles that comes from running a hashtag.

Lessons Learned

Despite any problems with running TechIsHiring, running and maintaining this has been one of the best decisions I’ve made for my career. I’ve met so many people through maintaining this and have been asked to speak on several topics because of my association with the hashtag. And it all really stemmed from being willing to spend some time to go out and help people find opportunity, even if that just meant poking around Twitter and finding tweets and just retweeting them.

I think there are a few key lessons I took from TechIsHiring and it’s maintenance that is very applicable to others trying to break into the Tech Industry:

• Give Back: One of the things TechIsHiring has really taught me that one of the best ways to build your career is to give back to the Tech Community. Giving back to the community helps put your name out there and does so in a way that’s positive. People will see that and will be more interested in reaching out and offering your opportunities. I’ve definitely been offered much more opportunities than I think I really deserved honestly. One caveat though, you need to be giving back in public. You can’t be in a corner working on ‘the next big thing’ and then expect all of this great stuff to happen once you release it. People respond to the journey more than the destination so let others follow you along on that journey. You’ll be so glad you did!

• You don’t have to start big: TechIsHiring started as a Twitter hashtag, nothing more. There was no account or newsletter or anything. I just had my phone and I retweeted jobs I found. I still do this today. How you give back doesn’t need to be elaborate or needs to be this great big thing. Do something that people find beneficial and you’ll be surprised how much people will react positively to you!

• Seek feedback: A quick follow up to the previous point is actively for feedback. As you’re working, reach out to people and get their opinion on what you’re doing and how you could be doing better. TechIsHiring wouldn’t be the way it is today without the feedback of several people who were only interested in helping me do better. If you’ve been doing something for a while, people will be much more willing to give you some feedback and help you along, if only to be able to say they were a part of your journey!

• Don’t underestimate the technical need for what you pursue: This advice is specifically for those in or are seeking Engineering roles. I’ve said this a few times before but TechIsHiring was just a hashtag starting out. Since then, I’ve built a Twitter bot which I had to update and built a website for TechIsHiring. All of these solutions needed to be deployed on some form of infrastructure to keep them running. A concern I had as I worked on TechIsHiring is that there wasn’t much of a technical need since I was just retweeting with a hashtag. I’ve since had to bring a fair amount of my Software Engineering skills and experience to solve some of the technical problems TechIsHiring has faced. Don’t underestimate the technical need for whatever you decide to pursue. There are many stories of someone solving a particular problem with a weekend project that turned into their day job or even their life’s work. You’d be surprised how something so simple as, “I need a website,” can balloon to interesting and engaging technical solutions! Just remember to do this work in public!

• Be persistent: The most important thing that TechIsHiring has taught me was the value of being persistent. Showing up every day, regardless of the quality of the work done, is significantly better than showing up and doing your absolute best work ONLY ONCE! This has been a slow grind and continues to be a slow grind but being persistent definitely pays off. Set yourself up to be able to put in some form of work consistently and over time that work will compound on itself. If you take nothing away from this, please take that!

Conclusion

And that’s really it. That’s the story of how I came to let everyone know that TechIsHiring! It’s been an interesting journey and I honestly did not think I would have ended up being a part of something like this. But I really am enjoying the ride and looking forward to seeing what this journey brings!

• If you found this article interesting, please feel free to heart this article!
• If you’re interested in learning more about Front-End Engineering, follow me here on Dev.to and Twitter.
• If you’re looking for jobs, I’d highly recommend checking out @TechIsHiring on Twitter, LinkedIn or TechIsHiring's new website https://www.TechIsHiring.com/ for posted jobs and other resources!