how they appear, why they are needed and what juniors and introverts should do in them

Artificial communities are emerging within companies. The method of education in them is directive – either employees are directly introduced to the community manager and are told that they are now in the community, or community managers pay attention to natural communities within the company and begin to work with them.

The goals of such communities are in line with the goals of business, and their activities are directly or indirectly aimed at making a profit.

What goals can artificial communities have:

• build social connections and unite active workers;

• retain employees (money, unlimited coffee and a massage chair in the office are no longer enough);

• hunt valuable personnel;

• improve the quality of a product or service through instant feedback between participants;

• create new products outside the company’s core business, without limiting specialists to familiar standards and criteria;

• maintain reputation in the industry and reduce marketing costs.

Although the goals of artificial communities are primarily business goals, such communities are just as useful for their participants as natural ones.

Why IT professionals need communities

The red thread that runs through any community is exchange of knowledge and experience. All networking, all connections and discussions are built around finding solutions to specific issues from work practice. A person in a community accumulates knowledge and finds answers much faster than an individual.

Senior specialists, with the help of the community, are filling the need for self-realization. They have a good job, decent salary, family and travel. When all basic needs are covered, a person wants something else. For example, to help others, and at the same time to be convinced in the knowledge that he is a cool specialist.

“I mentor because I'm good at remembering a lot of information, I can give answers quickly, and I know how to present them in a way that people understand. And in general, I've always enjoyed helping people.”

Savva Lebedev, senior course mentor “C++ Developer” in the Workshop

The community also helps develop soft skills and build personal brandWhen you are known in the industry, corporations invite you to meetups and give offers, and startups invite you to highly paid audits.

A professional with developed soft skills is a mega-cool Pokemon that everyone needs.

This brings us to one of the main opportunities of the community for specialists – this is career advancementWord of mouth has not been cancelled, and to get a good offer, one recommendation or acquaintance may be enough.

Participation in a community can be a green flag for an employer. For example, there is a conference HighLoad++ in Moscow and St. Petersburg. There are very complex reports, strict selection, expensive stands for companies and tickets for visitors. The mere fact of participating in such an event as a speaker is equal to recognition in the industry as a specialist.

What do community members do?

There are discussions in community management about how much time each member should devote to the community. But this concerns metrics for managers – for people it is always an optional activity, to which they can devote as much time as they want.

Traditions are important to the community. It could be a tradition to discuss a new topic from a pre-made list on Wednesdays. Or a Zoom meeting every other Friday to discuss how the week went.

There are also standard meeting formats:

• IT conferences, picnics and meetups where you can listen to lectures and participate in activities together;

• fuckup nights, where speakers talk about what they failed to do;

• IT stand-ups, where speakers joke about work;

• hackathons, the goal of which is to jointly develop a new product or solution;

• quizzes and quizzes.

This also includes meetings in bars and other informal meetings that are not related to solving problems and achieving goals.

Introverts in the community

Connections are the basis of a community. But IT communities imply that they can include introverts and shy people. For example, there are hackathons, where participants do not gather in teams, but solve problems individually. You can even work under a nickname, and no one will know your real name.

“I'm always shy, and if I can avoid talking to anyone, then I won't. I only talk to strangers at work if I really “have to”!

But you can work with fears and stops. For example, it is enough for me to keep quiet for a while and observe how communication is built in the group. Then you understand how you can communicate too. Or you can single out the people who are closest in views and first react to their comments, and then the conversation with the whole group will start by itself.”

Anastasia Bulchuk, Yandex Praktikum Ambassador

One of the tasks of a manager in artificial communities is to overcome the introversion of participants and create the possibility of comfortable communication for everyone.

If I see that someone is going too far and is too active, I have to “quench” them a little. And introverts can be stirred up with a game or other activity that will be comfortable for them.

And the stereotype about IT specialists being introverts is still exaggerated. I see that all specialists sooner or later get tired of their loneliness and go out into the community themselves. And if they start looking for an answer to a question about work, then even more so – after all, turning to others a couple of times is usually more effective than shoveling through 100 articles yourself. Maybe introverts will prevail in the category of people who usually keep quiet, but will still make a feasible contribution and take away their value.

How juniors can join the community – and how we work with them in Praktikum

On the one hand, the community is not about juniors. The value of newcomers for the community is not obvious, and they themselves are often not interested in it. Usually, a junior works “for a record”, sits at the computer and strives to prove himself within his team, and not the community.

I've seen juniors band together based on their “juniority” and position themselves as opposed to mids and seniors, but such groups can hardly be called serious communities.

At Praktikum, we are creating a community for aspiring IT specialists so that students and graduates feel supported, can exchange experiences and learn from their senior colleagues.

In addition to the feeling of a shoulder, the community at Praktikum is also an education. We have already given the students the basics, but what distinguishes a good specialist from a bad one is that he does not stop and constantly hones his skills.

We also help build bridges with graduates from previous streams. These are experienced specialists who share their experience, and some even offer juniors jobs.

“I have been collaborating with Praktikum for almost four years now: I was a mentor for backend developers, project managers and team leaders, and contributed to the backend course. Helping people change is cool.

We have great alumni, and I started hiring them when the opportunity arose. It turned out to be a good decision. I now have about 15 former students working for me, some of whom I’ve been with for two years.”

Andrey Pronin, CEO ProninTeam and course mentor “Development Team Management” And “Tools for a Beginning Manager” in the Workshop

We want to say: you came to us to study, you trusted us, and we will not abandon you after training. We understand how difficult it is for you and that there are people who will say that there are many like you, and nothing good awaits you in IT. We say no – if you want to be a cool specialist, earn money and develop, then go ahead! And we will help.