outreach_and_networking.md

Who your contact is, why you want to connect with them, and what you want to talk about?

My contact is a woman I did Peace Corps with who now works at Girls Who Code in New York City. She is not a software developer, but I'm more interested in the cultural priorities of a well known company whose mission I connect with. My plan is to reach out to her to talk to her about the culture of her work. From what I know about Girls Who Code, the culture and mission is very much in line with what I am looking for in 3-5 years after I've gained some experience. I'm also interested in volunteering for this organization or another whose mission is similar, so I will ask her about the outreach and volunteer opportunities Girls Who Code has and what would be best as someone who may be looking for a paid position at a place like this later on.

When you will contact them by and how you plan to meet.

Because she does not live locally, I am going to send her a message via social media (Instagram because that's where we have communicated in the recent past). I am going to do this during my last week of this mod.

What your follow-up will look like once you've met with them.

My ideal outcome of this message would be for her to share some specific things about the culture that she enjoys. I can then prioritize asking about those in interviews. I'm unsure if I'll ask about those for my first job, but I will definitely be taking note of them so I can have them on my radar.

What other steps will you take to start building a stronger network in the tech community?

I am going to two meetups in the next two weeks, and during intermission, I will also be reaching out to people who I have already connected with in Denver and have started professional networking relationships. I'm wondering about setting up a job shadow with them sometime during mod 3 in addition to the job shadow that Turing coordinates.