Someone asked me: "why do you go to so many meetups?"

Despite what you think, it's not because of the cold pizza or warm beer...

Ok. In all seriousness, here are some of my reasons:

- Get out of your comfort zone

It's a great opportunity to meet cool strangers from the industry, and get used to telling what it is that you are doing/working on.
Socializing is important to us humans, even if you are more introverted.

- Get assurance of your roadmap 🗺

Seeing others use the same technologies and tools as you do, makes you feel that you are on the right track.

I went to a GraphQL meetup and they used the gql playground and a similar schema generator to what I was using, and it made me feel relevant.

- Get another perspective

See what is new in the industry.
It seems like every week there is a new technology that is going to change everything, but in meetups, you can really see what is really being used in production.

- Learn about a new technology

This is obvious. learn learn learn! and never stop.
A meetup is a great place to get acquainted with the basics of a new technology.

- Expose yourself to new things

Yeah yeah, it's very similar to the last one, BUT, this one focuses on exploring new fields and new possibilities to the career trajectory, meetups don't have to be technical, they can be about soft skills (not less important than hard skills, some say even more important).

- Help others 🥷🏼

There are a lot of new developers that are looking for guidance at the beginning of their journey.
The brave ones will ask you directly, but sometimes a little help from your side is needed.

- Quality time with your co-workers after office hours

Not much to say here except, that it's a nice balance between job and fun 🍻

- Learn how to talk in front of an audience from the people themselves 🦾

Pick up small things that you liked and learn from the more experienced people, you'll also notice that no one really knows what they are doing, but they are getting out of their comfort zone which is always a good thing.

- Ask questions 💬

You can ask the people sitting next to you or ask the lecturers themselves.

- Find your next job 👨‍💻👩‍💻

Usually, the lecturers come from hiring companies, which is a great way to expand your connections and your job search.

- Eat and drink for free 🍕🍺

Don't have high expectations though...and sometimes...you'll be surprised for the better 🔥

Bonus ⚡️

Bring a notebook and write down everything from a new buzz word to a cool thing you liked about the meetup.
This helped me to "continue" the meetup after it ended.

🙏🏼 Add some reasons of your own in the comment section 👇🏼