The first steps as a newbie in software development are exciting enough to get you onto your first challenge, and your first challenge will pretty much set you up to look for help outside your head (you pretty much won’t be able to solve beginner problems without help even from places like StackOverflow).

If you’re a solo learner (not necessarily someone who uses solo-learn to learn code as you may have thought was being referred) soon enough you’ll discover the need to get help from other experienced developers for different reasons. Spanning from getting motivated by their story or simply for the inclusion of being in the “hacker” network (term software developers seemingly are throwing around — A real hacker) to even landing a gig. Whatever your reasons are here is a process you can follow to get more out of the “hackers” community (hang on we’re still talking software development and not cybersecurity)

Step 1: Find a community to join

Local or remote (a community on the internet), find a place where developers hang out often.

This will become your ideal place to find real people, who you’ve already figured out without many calculations are software developers like you (or rather newbies like you).

Step 2: Find a person to collaborate with

This is a rather more practical step and there is no direct approach to this. Although, one safe approach is to already have a project you’re working on.
As a beginner, you possibly will have to fight the urge of just being a one-man team. So be open to sharing ideas and collaborating with others.

A quick tip: Find someone in the same skill range as you but slightly better. Don’t go directly for the gurus (except if you’ve got a multi-million project idea at hand, you most likely won’t reach them in time)

Step 3: Build something

Building something with a new person does two things. Firstly, it gives you an insight into what working with people could look like — allowing you to build chemistry around being a team player. Secondly, it’s a big advantage to your portfolio as a developer.
Your portfolio (mainly referring to your GitHub repos and possibly other side projects you're involved in) is your Curriculum Vitae as a developer. The stronger this portfolio is the better.

Step 4: Create social networks

If you've figured, you don't have to be an expert to have an opinion on any topic. You simply need a basic knowledge of the subject facts. Given this basic knowledge, it's recommended you start up Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account (one that you can keep up with) and share the small bits of knowledge you already have (something as simple as correcting HTML to not be a programming language) including any fun stuff you can come up with.

Step 5: Join the conversation

If you've followed the first four steps, you're pretty much an active networking developer (possibly a celebrity developer in the making, if you're into that kind of stuff). Now go ahead and search for topics you find interesting, confusing and sometimes controversial through hashtags or trending topics.
Don't be afraid to note your opinions! It's part of your basic human rights - I guess.

CONCLUSION

Except you're in a room filled with CTOs of million dollars tech companies (which soon enough you would), don't think of yourself as a newbie. Rather, consider yourself an apprentice world-class developer. This doesn't mean creating a false sense of who you are (the imposter syndrome will certainly question this over and over) but to network properly, you need a sense of confidence even if you don't feel it.
Simply take the action, follow the steps outlined, be patient and keep learning.