Whether you are actively looking for a new job or open to hearing about new opportunities, professional networking sites can be a valuable tool for forging new connections, promoting your talents and attracting the attention of recruiters and hiring managers.
According to research, 92 percent of employers use social media sites to find talent, and 71percent of hiring managers view social media profiles as an effective way to screen job applicants.
While LinkedIn is the most popular networking site (with over 830 million users), it’s not the only place to interact with members of the tech community and grow your network online.
Check out some of these alternatives to LinkedIn.
GitHub
With more than 100 million developers and 4 million organizations around the world using the platform, GitHub offers ample opportunities to contribute to open-source projects, collaborate with colleagues or even launch your own projects, advised Christina Warren, GitHub’s senior developer advocate.
Best of all, most of the networking opportunities result from activity: from using the tools, sharing expertise or contributing a patch or idea to projects that interest you. “You don’t need to approach as if, oh, ‘I need to have a networking conversation, but I want to have a conversation about the code,’” Warren explained. In the process you can start to build relationships, which might naturally lead to job opportunities.
That said, you can supercharge the networking process by pinning projects to your profile, creating ReadME files, marking your profile as “available for hire” and cross-referencing your profile on LinkedIn or other networking sites.
Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange network provide an online question-and-answer forum where developers share knowledge and answer theoretical questions about coding.
Similar to GitHub, you can use your user profile as a portfolio and stand out by gaining reputation points and badges through the quality and relevancy of your questions and answers and your communication skills. However, adding specific attributes or skills to your profile or “tags” can make it easier for recruiters to find you when they’re searching for candidates.
Professional Associations
Being a member of a professional association affiliated with your industry and/or area of specialization can provide opportunities to stay ahead of industry trends, earn certifications and connect with members in your area of expertise, advised Thom Singer, author and speaker on business relationships and CEO of the Austin Technology Council.
Although many associations provide tools for boosting member engagement and connections such as online discussion forums and searchable directories, ideally you’d like to meet people face-to-face by attending local chapter meetings, happy hours and conferences.
Establishing yourself as a thought leader and building your personal brand will lead to new connections and relationships within an association, Singer said. For example, consider blogging or posting a video about what you learned at a conference on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram.
Meetup Groups and Tech Events
Meetup provides an online platform where technology pros with similar interests and learning goals can join groups, attend local meetings and events, and expand their knowledge and network at the same time.
You can build your reputation and contacts more quickly by starting your own group or volunteering to help the group organizer or speak at an upcoming event.
Although some recruiters attend local events, they can also search public lists of group members and attendees to find candidates for open positions anywhere.
Facebook Groups
Meta’s Facebook provides a bevy of public and private groups dedicated to various technical careers, skills and interests such as mobile app developers, programmers, software engineers, data scientists and more.
These groups offer several features that make them suitable for professional networking such as events, content sharing, discussions and messaging. You can promote your brand and encourage new relationships by sharing valuable insights, tips and resources that are relevant to the group's interests. Note that recruiters can join or search the public groups, as well.
Slack
Although Slack is best known as a communication platform for employees and internal teams, users can also connect with communities and chat groups that match your interests and area of technical expertise.
Some groups even organize networking events, webinars, workshops, and conferences where you can meet other professionals and invite members of your network to come along. Another plus: Slack lets you direct message someone to start a conversation or use a video chat to build rapport over virtual coffee. By the way, recruiters can also request access to these communities.
Kaggle
With over 18 million users, Kaggle can help you increase your visibility and credibility, learn new skills, find mentors and expand your contacts within the data science and machine learning community.
You can network with other participants, collaborators and sponsors by joining competitions, explore and contribute datasets and notebooks, join discussions and even follow and message other Kagglers. Again, activity drives engagement and opportunities because recruiters search profiles and rankings as well as location and job titles to find the best candidates.
Did you know that Reddit receives more than 27 million monthly visitors to its technology communities? It also features niche communities called “subreddits” focused on specific interests such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data privacy, coding support, programming and more.
These communities can be a great place to exchange ideas with other professionals, find mentors, and showcase your expertise by sharing articles and videos, responding to questions, and participating in challenges or events hosted by subreddit groups.
Another plus: you can use direct messaging to initiate relationships or ask about job openings or referrals and receive messages from recruiters about specific opportunities.
