Groups / Event Lists#

• SlothWerks Tech Calendar

  • Public calendar maintained by the amazing Sloth.
  • Add the calendar as an ICS Feed.

• Grand Rapids Slack

  • Contact me for invite.
  • Groups for linux, security, meetup announcements, and more.

Local West Michigan Technology Groups#

• Grand Rapids IndieWeb Group

  • Pending community interest
  • Indicate availability for a monthly or semi-monthly meetup at https://timeful.app/e/B56eb
  • Hosted by yours truly

• West Michigan Linux Users Group

  • FREE
  • Primarily Linux and open source focused
  • Meets in Jenison at Georgetown Public Library
  • Register by emailing president@wmlug.org and ask to be added to the mailing list

• Grand Rapids Python Users Group

  • FREE
  • Python focused group that meets downtown Grand Rapids
  • Meetings are usually a time to talk about projects and tools people like using. Sometimes they have scheduled presentations

• Cloud Security Alliance

  • FREE for most events
  • They host a few events throughout the year, mostly at LMCU ballpark
  • People from all over the tech space come (executives, systems people like me, developers, students, etc.)
  • The average event consists of a vendor doing some sort of pitch/fireside chat, and then the rest of the time is for food and networking
  • Registration required, and some events fill up fast

• GRWebDev - Grand Rapids Web Development Group on Meetup

  • FREE
  • Meets downtown GR

• Software GR and Merge on Meetup

• Michigan Information Security Community #misec

  • Active online Discord
  • Various cybersecurity related meetups

• Grand Rapids Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA)

  • Monthly events focused on Information Security

• Citizen Labs on Meetup

  • FREE
  • They use their skills to build projects the GR community can use
  • Great way to give to your community and put something tangible on your resume

• Meetup App

  • Download the Meetup app, lots of groups and events on it

Skill Building#

• LinkedIn Learning - GRPL
  • Free access with Grand Rapids Public Library Card (Kent District Library also offers this service)
  • Tons of great training courses for a variety of technical topics

Resumes#

• Sheets Resume Builder
  • One time fee for full version, or they have some free templates
  • Contact them and ask about student rates
• CONTRIBUTE to open source projects on GitHub
  • Find some issues you think you can fix, fix them, submit a pull request. Put THAT on your resume :)
  • Some projects will have issues flagged for beginners. This is a great way to get started! The Immich project has some good first issues that can be found here
• Make a website
  • Tools like Hugo and Pages CMS make it super easy to create, write, and host a FREE website entirely on GitHub
  • Get a domain name for super cheap at Porkbun and point it to your GitHub site (also free)
  • Add information about yourself, your current/past projects, link to your resume, etc.
  • If you link to your website on your resume, make sure it has content and is online.