14 Slack Teams Devs Should Join Now
Remote collaboration, gifs, experts at your fingertips, multi-platform, gifs, community. We ❤ Slack. Join our Slack team here. (Did we mention the gifs?!)
By: shanise barona & bee mtz
There’s at least one of us is in each of these teams. If you see us, give us a shout out!
Looking to get involved locally?
1. Code For America
Code for America is the ultimate civic tech engagement organization. “Connecting developers, designers, and product managers with governments to solve some of our nation’s biggest challenges.” With brigades in cities around the United States, there’s a chapter for you. Join your local brigade’s slack for a influx of great conversation, project ideas, local events and endless gifs. To get started, find your brigade here.
2. Girl Develop It
I love everything about Girl Develop It. From affordable classes on software and web development, “A Day in the Life of” career panels, code & coffee nights, what’s not to love?! “Girl Develop It helps women of diverse backgrounds achieve their technology goals and build confidence in their careers and their everyday lives.” With locations in 56 cities and counting, there’s a GDI community right in your neighborhood! (Hi, Philly chapter! ❤)
Find your local chapter here and join their slack channel for a continuation of the supportive community IRL, online.
Looking for a mentor or mentee?
3. JrDevMentoring
Kim Crayton has created substantial experience supporting people learning to code all around the world and now she’s created this safe networking space where kindness and respect are not only expected or valued, but demanded.
A mentor-mentee relationship is made formal by signing up and connecting in JrDevMentoring.com, which leads to a year of meetings. Start here.
4. Out Of Office Hours
I learned about OOOH thanks to the awesome Jo when it was still Holiday Office Hours. It has evolved into a monthly event, where Volunteers -people working on the tech industry- donate their time to speak to Newcomers. Their Medium publication explains everything better than I could, so, have a it. While you’re at it, follow Dustin, the sharp and kind mind behind OOOH.
You have to be either a Volunteer or a Newcomer to join this particular slack team, so, fill up their questionnaire and if you get in, your congratulatory email will contain the invite. Good luck!
Looking to get specific and technical?
5.Buffer Community
Sure, you know about the App. However, the community is wide and multicultural and really fun. This team focuses on social media, something some of us love, something some of us loathe, and definitely something we need in the process of building a brand, networking, and getting “out there”.
Resourceful, friendly, smart. Join here.
6. CodeNewbie
This is it. This is “The most supportive community of programmers and people learning to code.” If you have ever enjoyed the Wednesday #CodeNewbie twitter chat, imagine it 24/7, as technical as you want to get, and with you asking all the questions.
You’d be remiss not to take advantage of it. Join here.
7. Larachat
Ok, this might be not super newbie centered, but if you’re kin to dive into any sort of Backend, PHP, WordPress; you’d probably heard of Laravel. Laravel is an open-source web framework for web apps following the MVC architectural pattern.
Intrigued? Interested? Luckily for you, Laravel is running larachat. Request access here.
(Thanks to Daniel Baron for telling us about this one!)
8. Learnslackers
If you’re like me and are considering a bootcamp but not sure where to start, I would definitely recommend any sort of free pre-work or bootcamp prep course. Flatiron School offers a variety of free courses you can take to suss out if this course (or bootcamps in general!) are the right fit for you. In conjunction with the free course, there is the learnslackers slack where you can get round the clock help for that annoying javascript problem or that ruby method you just can’t seem to get working. Some of the regulars happen to be students or graduates of Flatiron and chime in to help newbies work through their issue. I’ve gotten great help from this group and cannot wait until I can return the favor. Check them out here.
Looking for inclusion and diversity?
9. Char.la
Technical talks and virtual meetups…en español! This initiative is great for so many reasons. I personally love the fact that as I am learning software development in English, I am able to learn a lot of the same concepts in Spanish. Which has been useful in bridging the gap with my family when I explain I am studying “how to make things for computers” because I previously did not know the terminology in my native language. Char.la aims to bring more visibility and discussion to #techenespanol as well as connect techies in Latin America and the rest of the world. They host three virtual talks on advanced technical topics once a month, every month. Their slack is a great resource, where the discussion often continues following the livestream. Join here.
10. AlterConf
If you’re looking for a truly inclusive tech conference, look no further, AlterConf is coming to a city near you! No, really, it is. AlterConf is “a traveling conference series that provides safe opportunities for marginalized people and those who support them in the tech and gaming industries.” A dream come true, am I right?
To get invited to the private slack, you’ll need to get involved with AlterConf in some way. Learn how you can participate in this amazing community here.
11. DatCode
Representation matters and having a supportive, diverse, and talented community you can relate to makes all the difference. In comes, DatCode “A community of Black coders (but open to anyone) sharing knowledge, collaborating, and meeting new people. We want to make ourselves more visible, for our sake and others; because coding is fun. You should get into it.” We don’t talk about just code though. From politics, books, movies, video games, you naaaaame it, there’s a channel for it. Everything about DatCode feels authentic and organic. I appreciate this community so much.
Good conversation, great resources and brilliant people, daily. Join here!
12. Techqueria
Techqueria aims to connect latinxs in the tech industry, regardless of position and experience. They hold local events in the Bay Area, but members are dispersed across the globe, so, local Techqueria communities are forming…
You can ask for a Slack invite here.
13. Ela Conf
The most feel-good conference there ever was. That’s how I would describe Ela Conf. Ela Conf describes Ela Conf as “a conference with a goal to create a safe, supportive, inspiring and comfortable community for marginalized genders(18+) to gain the confidence needed to become leaders, speakers, and teachers in the world of tech.” Although the conference is only a two day event, the feels continue throughout the entire year. Daily, the Ela Conf slack is alive with empathetic support, genuine advice, empowering activism and silly cat memes. With #advice being their most active channel, it’s safe to say that we are all rooting for one another. They recently added an #ama channel, featuring a guest once a month, available to answer participant questions.
What are you waiting for? Don’t miss out on the fun. Request to join this amazing community here.
14. CodetteClub
Shameless plug. So what? The perks of writing for yourself :)
We are #WomenInTech who like to talk code, geek and freak out in channels such as #commonroom and #chamberofsecrets. We take pride on cheering for each other in what’s probably the closest to a Hogwarts Slack Team.
We ask for advice and come to share interview experiences, we tackle ˜ The Google ˜ together and we almost stress more about not having the right gif to react to good news than when our code breaks.
You don’t have to identify as a woman to join, rest assured we won’t be accepting any crap towards anyone in our community ever. From any gender, for that matter.
Tell us about your favorite Slack team and which ones you are joining in the comments below!
