| It sounds like you already have a few ideas, and in my opinion, all of them are good. But first, you need to figure out where you want to be. 1. Are you happy with .Net development? Or are you willing to explore something new? 2. What do like doing? Do you enjoy web development? Then stick to it. Otherwise, maybe a small project in say, a mobile app will tell you if you like that kind of work. With that said, I have found that attending community events is a great place to start. You get to talk to and mingle with like minded folks, and even if it is a community around a technology/methodology that you have little or no experience with, you can still talk to folks and see what they think. Most communities I am a member of are always helpful. I have also found coding meetups as a great place to get to know people. But the networking element is very big, and useful. People need to get to know you. Once you have picked, say .Net, or Ruby, or iOS, try a small project with it. Make a presentation of what you have learned. Again, nothing teaches you like teaching others. And people will remember you. It seems you are already somewhat of a "producer" (your StackOverflow score) - adding to that never hurts. Whether that is working with someone at a coding session, giving a presentation, writing on your blog about your learnings, or contributing to open source - it helps. Feel free to experiment a bit - Spent a little time on a mini-project of your own and see if you can turn it into something you like doing (this takes effort and discipline especially if it's using new technologies, and not a very small project). If that that does not work, look for some OSS project to contribute. My take on this is simple - people admire those who are passionate about what they do. Companies (and tech people higher up on the food chain) are always sniffing around the local groups to find talent (at least that has been my experience). I personally do a little of everything, and although I do find that I spread myself a little thin, it has helped me. I speak (and help out) at local user groups, I used to host and manage two of my own, I usually have a project (in a new language) of my own. My OSS contribution has been next to nothing, but I am hoping to turn that around soon. On a final note - learn how to sell yourself. You sound like you already have some very good practices - you just don't know how to "work" it. One of the books I recommend to everyone is "Never Eat Alone" - It truly changed the way I see every relationship and helped me tons along the way. Hope this helps. |