I'm an engineer at Monza Bank in London.

In the UK I'm gonna talk about the power of the community on Dhe, how it's helped me and also how it can help you.

And so, the way I see it, I see the wider tech community is being made up of three kind of parts.

So there's my work community, my online community and my community of people that meet ups and conferences just like this.

But I'm gonna talk to you.

What?

These are explained how they helped me and also give you some tips on how to make the most of them.

S o.

My work community consists of people I've worked with, people I work with now, people I worked with in the past.

They've got so much experience and different backgrounds from me on DSO.

Having learned from them over the past four years, I kind of I've learned so much about things I wouldn't even have any idea about because, you know, they've bean engineer for longer than me.

Or they came into engineering in a different way from me on dhe.

I started my career in a really big company with a lot of people who had been there for a very long time.

Andre had a lot set ways of doing things that hadn't changed in years.

And, you know, people come along and say, Let's let's do it this way And people that don't know Onda We actually brought in a lot of contractors, which, you know, the people who'd be there forever didn't approval, But it's working with them was actually eye opening because I got to learn so much about what other companies were like, Um, how other people did things on dhe.

You know, I'm a friend of them.

I stayed in touch, and when it was time for me to look around elsewhere, those people answer.

My old colleagues were able to give me advice because they'd work with me and they knew what I was like and they knew I would like.

So when it comes to building your work community to make sure that you bring yourself to work, so be honest, be genuine, and people will really appreciate that.

And they will do the same meet as many people as you can.

So, monster, we've gotta slap channel that pairs you up randomly with a new person each week on what this is great for is just finding out more about how your company works and finding out what different people do and stay in touch of people when they leave or when you leave on your network will just widen and widen and you never know where you are or they might end up about the online community.

Chances are some of us are on some kind of social network.

I'd put money on it that it's Twitter, but you don't have to do this.

But for me, it was a game changer.

I used to stay away from Twitter until someone pointed out to me that it's a bit like radio you can tune in whenever you want.

Thio Um, And so I posted a tweet asking for advice because I was giving my first ever talk last year, and I got so many replies of such amazing information that I turned into a block post and then turned that into a talk bonus.

So I've learned so much from people on these different social media platforms.

And if Twitter is not your thing, you could try an online community like AIDS List or DEV dot too code newbie or their various slack or discord groups.

My tip for that is share interesting conversation content that, you see.

It doesn't have to be your own stuff, but it will spark conversations.

And it's all about post quality, not quantity.

So don't post lots and lots of knots, hoping that people will pay attention post a few times.

But really good stuff or really terrible jokes go down very well as well.

And finally, the thing that I think has had the most profound effect on my own professional development is meeting people that meet ups and conferences just like this.

Some of them are in this room right now.

They helped me to build up a network of friends that I can talk to you about the industry, about salaries, which is a really important thing to talk about what it's like, where they work on just understanding what the industry was like in my area.

Eso these friends helped me realize that I was actually being really underpaid at my last job, and so when it came to applying for a new job, I knew the kind of figures that I should be asking for and mentoring at workshops like Code Bar, which has just started here in Berlin, was fantastic for strengthening my own self belief and for dealing with the impostor syndrome that I feel like is inevitable in this industry.

Companies could often be very singular in their culture, so it's important to me other people in the same areas you.

So you understand what other places are like.

It's really easy rewarding to give back to the community as well, whether it's by giving talks, mentoring of the people or even just getting your company to host of meet Up.

I chose my current comfort current company, Monceau, partly because it hosts so many meet ups, and it's really community minded to sum up.

I owe these communities so much.

They help me to understand where I want to go and how to get there on.

I'm now in a role that I absolutely love in A in a company.

I never dreamed I could work for Andi.

I'm just having a great time, and it's because of these people, so thank you to the people that I've worked with.

You helped me grow and help me move on.

Thank you to the people online who boosted my signals and got me loads of really amazing advice on retweeted my terrible jokes and thank you to the people in this community who have supported me along the way and got me to where I am today.

And I'm always happy to talk about this so you can find me on Twitter to underscores my user name.

Oh, you can Come on, fight me after this.

Thank you very much.