This January 2021 marks 3 years for me being a Developer Advocate. During this time I've been very busy. Being in DevRel is a lot of fun, & of ...
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It turns out I have been working towards a DevRel career and didn't even know it!
Thank you for writing this post!
Same here.
I just started doing things I liked and some day I got a mail asking if I wanted to do it for a living.
Was it like getting an owl with your letter to Hogwart's? :D
It's so interesting to hear about this branch of development I hadn't even realized existed!
Pretty much.
I wrote blog articles almost every week for two years before someone hired me to do it for money.
I find it interesting too, it's a mix of many things I like.
Same here!
I'm so gonna read this!
I got job for writing tech articles for a startup so I guess I got the first step right :D
This is one of the best blog posts I've read in such a long, long time. I've been wanting to get into DevRel & it seems like I'm headed that direction if I just keep going. This was a really great post
Awesome to hear, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Best of luck in your journey! :)
I still haven't figured out what devrel is. People have been talking about it for years, and I'm still mystified.
Depending on who you work with it could mean a lot of things. Typically it means helping developers be successful using a service or some type of technology.
Part of that is education & another part of that is giving feedback to the engineering team & project managers about what people like, dislike, & want.
We also help developers / teams in general make decisions & sometimes even prototype solutions for them.
That's called consulting no?
A lot of things in technology outside of actual development seem to overlap, so I guess this could fall into that category if you were billing for this sort of help.
Great post.
Number 3 is very iffy to me because no one can be knowledgeable about everything so you do have to pick your battles. Sticking to just one piece of tech is definitely going to hurt rather than help though.
/#7 is very true! Most of the people I know in Dev Rel had incorporated a lot of what goes into a job in that field either into their day job, their work with the community, or both. I know this was the case for me.
Great stuff. I totally agree that one doesn't have to have the title of Developer Advocate. Many people speak publicly and teach others while working a traditional engineering role. If one wants to do these things they shouldn't wait for someone to give them the permission to do it. They should just start doing the things they think will help others.
Yep, this is so true. It seems as though many roles seem to be converging, sharing responsibility, or less defined when looking at this space.
What do you actually do, though? It seems like people in devrel talk about devrel in broad terms, but after a couple of years of it being a buzzword I still have no clue what it is. The closest I think I've come is "sometimes say nice things about other developers".
Other than that it's all a bit like the rules of Fight Club.
It depends, but for me I create a lot of example projects & reference architectures & open source them, create videos, write blogs, speak at conferences & have meetings with developers using the services & tools that my team builds.
To do what, though? I mean, I have meetings with developers all the time. We create example projects as part of development work all the time. I don't write blogs, but I know other developers who do. Same with conferences. I'm missing something here!
Wow, an awesome post I didn't know that I'm working towards it as well. It's really interesting to know that there's a job that allows you to move towards a career like DevRel.
Thank you for the post! I have finally managed to understand the aspect of a DevRel and unknowingly I have been walking down the similar path.
very nice post. thanx for the hints