#1 thing to do for technical, shy people is ask: "What tech problems are you solving at work" to various IT people. That will get the ball rolling and you more

#1 thing to do for technical, shy people is ask: "What tech problems are you solving at work" to various IT people. That will get the ball rolling and you more or less stay in a comfortable subject. And if in the discussion you demonstrate versant understanding of their intricacies, then that is a big step to getting people to trust you in a future job, because if someone can understand problems and can code, then they are 90% of the way there as a "good hire". Don't concern yourself with being a know-it-all or having all the solutions, listen, analyze, bounce ideas you think of off of them. Or just learn from a different set of circumstances, tech stack flotsam, management, requirements, and/or philosophy. Of course the remaining 10% takes the remaining 90% of the time.