Your connections¶
Knowing the right people won’t get you a job, but it can help you.
Does who you know matter as much as what you know? The answer is yes, who you know can make a huge difference - but it might not be in the way you think.
Be clear that except in the most unusual and unlikely of circumstances, you are not going to land a job simply by knowing the right person. Nobody is going to “get you a job”. The world just doesn’t work like that.
What makes a difference is knowing people who know things, that they can share with you: insights, knowledge, advice, perspectives experiences - the things that this website tries to provide.
Networks of knowledge¶
As an African, you are most likely on the outside of the software industry, looking in (and Africans who do make it into the industry, even with great success, often say they feel that are still in some way outsiders, looking in).
If you had been born say in San Francisco, perhaps you would have grown up sitting at dinner tables with uncles and cousins talking about the goings-on of Silicon Valley. It would be a familiar world, on your doorstep. If you had studied at a European technical university, you would have direct contact with people and conversations in the industry. Living anywhere in the west, you would likely be within reach of plenty of people familiar with jobs and job markets and the way these things work.
People in those situations benefit from having networks of knowledge around them. There will always be someone who knows someone who has an answer, or can give advice. No-one is going to get a job just because they know someone, but there is real practical knowledge in those networks of people - people who can say things like:
You should apply to <xxx> - they have just advertised a job that fits your profile perfectly.
At <yyy> they really care about your academic record - take it seriously when you’re asked about it.
The problem with your CV is …
You really ought to be considering developer relations or community management roles.
My goodness, whatever you do don’t say that in your interview!
You’re planning to say that your salary expectations are USD <nnn>?! You must be joking! First, don’t offer any information until you really need to, and second, you can easily add another 50% to that figure.
And so on.
If you’re not surrounded by people able to say such things to you with authority borne of experience, you’re missing out on the gold dust that some other people take so much for granted that they don’t even know it’s gold dust.
Building your networks¶
You’re going to have to build your own networks, and find ways to get your own gold dust.
In the absence of connections that simply come your way “naturally”, through your everyday social and work environment, you’ll need to cultivate them in other ways. Cultivate is the right word - they must be nurtured and tended, consciously.
That doesn’t mean they can be manufactured. It’s unsatisfying and ineffective to approach them in a transactional way. If you approach any relationship mainly from the perspective of your own advantage, it’s not going to create the kind of bond that you need.
Also, the value you get out of that kind of network is directly related to the effort and value you put in. For example, it’s cheap and easy to form connections on social media, but they will be as cheap and shallow as your own engagement in them.
Do something you care about¶
It starts with something you genuinely care about. Whatever it is, you can be pretty sure that it’s something other people are interested in too. It could be updating Open Street Map data for where you live, or improving Wikipedia pages on topics you have expertise in, or programming in Python, or something completely different.
You will find that others also share that interest, and wherever there is a shared human effort, personal relationships and social networks build up around it. It can take a while for you to find them and even longer to feel that you fit in, but those doors are there for participants. Your caring and your participation in the effort are what will mean you belong.
The connections will follow naturally.
Adjacent conversations¶
The subject-matter of the effort you participate in might not itself touch the topics, related to work, careers and advancement, that you need to help you. But there will always be adjacent conversations to any effort people take part in together, and as you listen to and take part in those, you will start to be exposed to the same networks of knowledge and advice that can be so valuable.