This file is basically a brain dump of what I would do if I was looking for a job as a relativly new developer today.
There are tons of Meetups around, but it's important to sort through which are actually helpful and which are a waste of time. Personally, I've found that the more specific a Meetup is, the better it generally is in terms of useful content and potential networking. For example, I've gotten much more value out of the Chicago HTML5
meetup than I have the Chicago Web Professionals
.
Networking at meetups is key. First, the company providing the meetup space is usually hiring (which is a big reason why they host developer meetups) and will often provide a pitch at the beginning. The person giving the pitch is the one you want to find after the talk if the openings sound interesting.
In addition, talking to other people at the meetup can lead to finding out about open positions as well. When I was helping out with hiring, I definitely looked closer at resumes of peop