Hey VC family!
We started the new year by diving into new goals and projects, and with February, we think it's time to get our technical personas back on track, as well as share are newfound knowledge and insights!
π Kindness and Gratitude
Spotlighting some of the kindness happening in our community.
"Just went looking for a gratitude channel to quickly shout out Meg for all the amazing and consistent support I see her providing just like, all the time, itβs fantastic."
"I've really been enjoying the CSS Battles. Kudos to JΓΆrn Bernhardt for running these. It's a nice break in my day."
"I'm so grateful for the awesome room I was in during VC chat today. Y'all gave me so much good info and advice, and now I feel much better equipped and less panicky/frustrated about my next learning steps. Thank you!"
"HUGE shoutout to Andrew Bush for doing a great job leading last month's monthly challenge!"
π What's happening at Virtual Coffee
January Recap
Monthly challenge -> Month of Learning Challenge!
The year began with renewed vigor in seeking out learning, hobbies, and projects. Virtual Coffee members shared their goals together and formulated strategies to make those goals achievable.
February -> Get Job Ready!
This challenge is sponsored by: Joe Masilotti, founder of RailsDevs, the reverse job board for Ruby on Rails developers.
It is never a bad thing to keep your job packet updated, and we're going to challenge you to do it, whether or not you're actively applying to jobs.
During this month, we'll work on creating, revising, or updating your job packet materials and that elevator pitch that might get you in the door. Each week, we'll work on a new piece, starting with the resume.
We're focusing on creating job application materials. Whether you're actively looking, getting ready to look, or want to update your materials in case that dream job comes along, this is a great time to do it with the community and get feedback.
We encourage you to post your ideas, questions, and fears in the #monthly-challenge channel in Slack. We're all learning and growing together!
Each week, we'll do a Slack check-in to brainstorm, support, and learn from each other. Keep in mind that different experiences will have different approaches to the materials, but we can all provide positive feedback.
Check out the Virtual Coffee website for more details!
βπͺ Coffee Table Events
- Tech Interview Study Group (Mondays at 4:00 PM ET)
- Accountabilibuddies (Tuesdays at 7:00 PM ET, Thursdays at 9:00 AM ET, and every other Sundays at 1:00 PM ET)
- Indie-startup hackers (Every other Wednesday at 12:00 PM ET β see #indie-startup-hackers)
- Frontend Friday Folks fighting CSSBattle.dev (Fridays at 2:00 PM ET)
β Official Virtual Coffee Events
- Virtual Coffee (Tuesdays at 9:00 AM ET | Thursdays at 12:00 PM ET)
- TypeScript Tuesday (Tuesdays at 2:00 PM ET on Twitch)
- Async Twitter Chat (Friday, prompts tweeted out at 9:00 AM ET)
Note: These are the currently scheduled times for these events at the time of this publication. Please check the official VC #announcements Slack channel, or other noted channels, for any updates and links to event rooms. For the full list of events, check out our events page.
Volunteering at VC
We're very excited to continue open membership with the support of our active volunteers! All our active volunteers have an invite to send out to someone interested in joining Virtual Coffee. If you're interested in joining the volunteer team, check out some the roles here!
Member Highlights
Blogposts
Here's some of the awesome articles our members wrote!
- Assume Best Intent is not the Best Approach β Bekah Hawrot Weigel
- Defer To The Rescue β Taiwo Yusuf
- Tips From A Shy Introvert: How To Engage And Get More Involved In A Community β Ayu Adiati
- How to build a Design System in Next.Js with Storybook and TailwindCSS β Temitayo Ogunsusi
- Bet On Me In 2023 β Emmett Naughton
Member Wins
"My POTA (Parks on the Air/ham radio) activities this weekend earned me the Bronze Hunter Award for making 10 unique contacts. I also made my first international contact in Ontario yesterday, which was pretty cool!"
"I got word this morning that my application for one of the Program Committee positions for RailsConf 2023 in Atlanta was accepted, and I'll be starting almost immediately on curating the talks for that (major) conference for the Ruby on Rails community!"
"I've gotten 2 stars and 1 contributor to my MtgApp! Was not expecting that so that is exciting!"
What our members are up to
- Check out some of our resident streamers: Bekah, Nick, Andrew Harper, Arthur, and Ian.
- Nick Taylor's newsletter keeps you up to date with the hot topics in tech.
- Newsletter alert! Code as Gardening: The Rise of AI β Vic Vijayakumar
- Lucia Cerchie's newsletter is a breath of fresh air in the tech space.
- Dominic Duffin co-hosts ArtTechChat on Twitter every Sunday at 1:00 PM ET.
Open Source Projects
- VirtualCoffee.io β a Remix Web App for our community created by Dan Ott
- Regex Parser β a regular expression parser project by Amy Shackles
- DRONE β a Continuous Delivery system built on container technology
- JESS CSS β a CSS pre-processor that compiles to JavaScript!
- Postpartum Wellness App β a React Native App by Bekah HW