[foolishdream]

I'd steer clear of meetups, hackathons, etc. Most of them are polluted with low signal/noise. I've found them to be a total waste of time but it's a great way to get that initial job if you don't have one already. You need things that are curated by cost, signal, or strong mutual acquaintance. Meetups usually don't have high enough obstacles to avoid pretend programmers.

The best way is engaging smart coworkers. These are the people that are going to vouch for you, shortcut the hiring process, help carve out good opportunities for you.

Other things I've done with varying success is randomly contact people off forums that I might be in a position to immediately help; inform existing contacts and ask them if they know people that I should meet out there; develop parallel hobbies like soccer, rock climbing, etc that can segue into deeper friendships. Engaging quality coworkers and these other activities tend to compound over time.

[elyrly]

I disagree with meetups and hackthons being a low signal to find like minded individuals. If spending a weekend hacking on a project at a hackathon or a few hours after work attending a meetup does not foster a community of well intentioned developers i don't know what other avenue OP will meet people. But with any open events there is the inventible freeloaders.

Meet-ups/Hackathons/Concerts/Sports/Bars/Social-clubs

[foolishdream]

What has come out of contacts you initially met at meetups and hackathons? How long have you been going to them? How long have you been a developer? How many jobs have you had?

How does that compare to your network from coworkers, old bosses, friends, acquaintances that were not initially from tech focused meet ups?

[dllthomas]

I've made two friends at meet ups good enough that I've kept in touch outside of them - one of whom I've been doing some coding with. I've also run into people in person who I'd previously known from IRC or reddit (and one former classmate I had lost touch with) .

The quality of the experience certainly varies substantially, meet-up group to meet-up group. Fortunately, there's no commitment - if you go to one and it sucks, don't go to that one again.