| I'm a coorganizer of Python meetups in NYC. You usually get what you pay for. Our meetups are free, but they do take time out of your day. In exchange for your time we offer: - Free pizza and beer (just Tuesday nights, not at weekend office hours - but we usually have free tea then.) - Access to potential employers (usually the ones buying the pizza and beer or providing the space - we give them 5 minutes to make a pitch about themselves, and allow them to stick around and take questions from people who are interested). - Access to other Python programmers who are at every point on the learning spectrum, including experts who can help you. - There is also the opportunity to help other people who are usually deserving and appreciative, frequently just trying to learn on their own. - (No one will bug you if you don't want to be bugged. We have a code of conduct, but I've never seen us have to invoke it.) - From time to time, we have speakers, tutorials, workshops, and other kinds of presentations and learning opportunities. - We also offer you the opportunity to provide these kinds of learning opportunities for others. I have been a member of our meetup for 6 years, and a coorganizer for the last 3 years. I have learned a lot, mostly on my own, but I've also had a lot of opportunities to help others learn. I haven't paid a dime (I think I've donated a couple of twenties) and I haven't been paid a dime. But I've met a lot of people and it's provided me with a lot of experience that is hard to match. I've helped people build websites, do web scraping, and do data munging and analysis. I've given talks myself. As a result of all of this, I'm teaching at world-class universities. Meetups aren't for everyone. A lot of my opportunities have come from being there. They say a lot of success is in showing up. Well, I do that, at about half of our office hours (I even ran them every Sunday for a year), and I still try to show up, even though I've given myself permission to not do it. You get out what you put into it. If you solely want a learning experience, pay for college classes. If you solely want to get experience programming, do free work until you can charge for it, and charge for it. If you want pizza and beer, go buy it. You don't need a meetup for those things. But if you like all of those things, you can show up, and we don't charge you money for that. That's a pretty good deal, in my humble opinion. |
I think that both Aaron and myself (and, indeed, all of the organisers) use the meetup as an opportunity to meet programmers needing mentorship.
Many of us have personally benefited from the generosity of others, and we feel an obligation to offer newcomers this same opportunity.
I don't have any real skills, but I do know a lot about Python, and I attend the weekly meetups to share this knowledge with others.
I'm there every week (barring conference & work travel,) and I'm there to help.