Social capital is one of the most important assets a professional can have, it is one of the major dividends of networking or adding value. In software engineering, where one doesn't know it all, social capital is invaluable. The typical client can't tell the difference between a junior, mid, or senior software engineer neither can they tell the difference between a job that requires a senior, mid or junior engineer, they also can't estimate how many software engineers are needed on a project.
YOU NEED TO JOIN COMMUNITIES AS A DEVELOPER
After search engines, social capital is the most important asset of a software engineer. Having a rich repository of developers you can reach out to solutions to challenges or provide insight on critical issues can make one look like a rockstar developer. This is why developers gather both online and virtually, joining social media platforms with developers like Whatsapp groups, Telegram groups, and Twitter is massively beneficial to both developers and recruiters. I know of some recruiters that put vacancies on select group chats because they trust the quality of developers in that group.
MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO HELP YOU
As a software engineering enthusiast it important to join communities quickly. While it will be intimidating because you don't understand what is being said, I can assure you that the benefits outweigh the early feelings of confusion. You also need to make it easy for people to help you, when passing through a challenge, describe the challenge as clearly as possible in order to seek help. You have to understand that a lot of developers are time-poor as such they're more likely to attend to clearly described problems rather than vague problems.