I can really relate to not having local meet-ups or irl dev community so here's the communities I joined at the time and had the most impact:
Coadingcoach I found several people among the mentors here and just messaged them on twitter basically. Like hey I'm trying to be a software developer, is it ok for me to ask you some advice at times. It's crazy but the rubber duck effect for me is really strong, wiki so just asking questions to someone who is in a position I aspired to be in made a big difference. I still keep contact with the people I met and I'm still very grateful. There were people who took considerable amounts of time out of their day to give feedback on code / design etc.
Eddie Jaoude : I learned about Eddie on youtube, and his energy is really great. Super inclusive, everyone is welcome, no questions are stupid and the people on the Discord server all celebrate each others victories and encourage each other. The main focus is open source but anything goes. Many times he will have guests on the live stream, and it's a great place to be. I'm still active and joins his live streams every time (almost hah).
Remotive : Fully focused on remote working, people say hi when they start their workday, there's hiring people lurking around etc. It's friendly. I'm kind of on the fence about recommending a paid community honestly, but I joined back when.
Reactiflux : This community is really big, but I also got really good leads by directly messaging people on there who was hiring, it's been a better hit rate messaging people directly on there compared to sending in official applications through websites. Matter a fact I found my current position there by just reaching out.
Thank you!
I can really relate to not having local meet-ups or irl dev community so here's the communities I joined at the time and had the most impact:
Awesome! Thanks for sharing this.