Breaking into DevRel: my honest opinions after a 2 years journey

Breaking into public speaking: my honest opinions after a two-year journey

Denver, Colorado-Photo by Diana Todea

Two years ago I’ve never heard about DevRel before. I never knew what a Developer Advocate was or did. I never knew public speaking in tech was a thing. I was living blissfully in my bubble, doing my engineering tasks, feeling productive and protected. After 15 years in the tech industry that bubble was about to burst.

I wrote my first tech presentation two years ago and I presented it at an internal meetup at my organisation. While I didn’t really receive any feedback, the stars aligned for me and I got invited to submit it to a tech conference. My first tech conference. I used the presentation that I already had and it got accepted. Just like that.

My first on stage presentation was exactly like you would expect it to be for an introvert: I got nervous, my voice was shaking, I literally never made eye contact with the audience. However, I did get follow up questions during my talk and afterwards. Networking with people was actually the most important highlight from my first experience. Seeing other engineers and DevRels presenting was like discovering a new world. Giving feedback of your projects, having fun explaining concepts was what attracted me. I wanted in this world. Really, really badly.

I didn’t whine about it. I started working towards my goal. I came home from this first conference, that was in the autumn of 2023, and I started working on my first 2–3 CFPs. I applied everywhere and I waited. I didn’t expect absolutely anything. I expected around 100% rejection.

In 2024 I spoke at 14 events and I got accepted to a few more than that. I just couldn’t fit them all into my agenda and my budget was about to burst so I had to decline a few of them. My secret? I’ll tell you all about it below.

Tips on preparing your CFPs

1. Just do it : if you are serious about speaking at conferences, no prior preparation will be better than actually submitting directly to conferences. Yourself, without xGPT. You, yourself and your brain.
2. Mass submit. Some people might disagree with me on this one, but when I started I wasn’t picky about choosing a specific tech event. I wanted in. I wanted to speak. Mass submitting your abstracts doesn’t mean that you will get accepted to all conferences, it’s about having the option to choose from several conferences. You should be able to decide to which conferences you want to go and not let the game decide for you. Apply to all conferences you deem interesting and fit your agenda.
3. Have something prepared : a draft, an original idea, a research, a project, a demo. It doesn’t have to be ready, it can be only in its primal stage.
4. Target the right audience : if you’re going to apply to tech events with the wrong topic and get rejected then it’s on you. Do your research about the event, past editions, what topics they accept, what guidelines they have and tailor your CFP accordingly. Act as an academic and be rigorous.
5. Work on your title and your abstract : yes, the rule of 99% work and 1% talent applies here. There is no genius magic if you’re not constantly polishing your abstract and expect your abstract to get accepted out of the blue. Pay more attention to the words, the phrasing, keeping multiple drafts of your CFP. It will always be a work in progress.
6. Don’t do boring titles : guilty as charged. Until very recently, I didn’t understand the power of titles. If your title resembles thousands of others from previous submissions, it won’t really stand out. You should pick the title of your CFP as you pick your marriage clothes. Meaning: pay attention to it and edit it until it’s really the best one that comes to your mind. Be creative, unique but also stay on topic.
7. Learn the CFP structure : this one is an absolute must. Most CFPs will have a title and a description that will go online with the public agenda. Others will have fields like elevator pitch, outline, benefits to the ecosystem, notes. Please do fill all of them and pay attention to them. They don’t mean copying and pasting the same abstract over and over again. Do your research to understand what these fields mean and have the content ready for all of these fields. Better safe than sorry.

My beginner success was founded on a mix of courage, very low expectations, hard work and patience. But once I did get accepted, the “real” work started: filling in the content of my talk. Let’s discuss this below.

What to add in your presentation and what not to add?

1. Based on the time you have from the moment your talk is accepted until the time you will have to present it, you will need to create, polish, edit your content. Do your research on your topic thoroughly. Act like a writer, journalist, academic. Take it seriously. Add resources to your talk, make a list of concepts you are going to use, add some diagrams, architectures, visual explanations, if they help.
2. You don’t have to exhaust your topic in your talk. Meaning that you seldomly will have time to actually go over the topic in 15/20/30/40 minutes. Your presentation is there to provide the highlights, the best, the “cream” of the information and motivate the audience to further research into the topic you present.
3. The content is highly dependent on your chosen topic. It can have a tech demo or not, a lot of visual slides, drawings or not. It can be a personal journey, a motivational talk, a very deep dive technical talk. Overall, try to be yourself in how you formulate the content. You don’t want to repeat content amassed from other sources only to recite them verbatim to the audience. You should show your unique view on the subject, what you have extracted from the literature and the research. Your opinion is what counts and it’s really what the audience is looking for.
4. Less is more: don’t add too much information on the slides. The slides needs to be visually “clean”. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and “see” with their eyes. Would you like to see so much information on the slides for the very first time? After a day or two of a full conference schedule? How much attention span do you think the human brain actually has? Try to keep the written content from the slides to only the essential points.
5. The audience should always remain with 2–3 main from your talk: prioritize content clarity over shiny, catchy slides. I know we all like the cool speaker with the cool slides and slick cursor pointers, zooming in and out, making jokes and looking like they were born on stage. But ask yourself this: how many ideas from their talk did you actually take home?
6. Don’t overdo it with the memes, gifs, jokes, visuals, animated visuals. Everything that is “heavy” to the eye will be heavy to the brain. Don’t make it hard for the audience to understand your message. Be more like Giorgio Armani rather than John Galliano, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, then Google it. It’s worth it.

The tech event approaches: how do you conquer your nerves?

The content is ready and the time comes when you get up on stage. Whether you’re an extrovert or a shy, nervous introvert, it doesn’t matter. You should definitely have fun during that moment. This moment is yours and you should own it. How? Find a technique that relaxes you and it makes you focus: breathing exercises, looking more at the audience, telling a joke, having a “before and after presentation” ritual, whatever works. This moment is yours and you should enjoy it.

Feedback time!

The talk is over and you are waiting the questions. But the audience is silent. You panic and immediately think that your delivery was bad or that they didn’t like your talk. Nah! Don’t jump to conclusions. I have been to events where the audience seldomly asked questions during or immediately after the talk. Instead the people came to me and talked to me privately, shared their projects, their frustrations or they sought advice. They might not come immediately after and that’s ok too. They might reach out during a break, at the after party or on social media. Prepare for this moment and provide them with the opportunity to engage you. How?

1. Add resources to your presentation: I said it before but it’s a good technique to show the public that you’ve done your research, you care about sharing information and you do want further contact.
2. Add your own feedback form: you don’t have to necessarily wait for the conference organizers to have a feedback form ready. They might or might not have it. They might provide feedback to you or not. Unfortunately, not many conferences or events provide you with this opportunity. Be ready and pro-active and have this tool prepared for your audience and include it in your slides.
3. Be available and open on social media: add your contact details on the slides, at the beginning and/or at the end of your presentation. Follow up after your talk or wait until the conference is over and post on social media providing the URL to your slides and asking for feedback. It’s basically saying thank you to your audience and extending your efforts of sharing knowledge continuously.

Not so fast: more tips for professional public speakers

The conference is over. But have you thanked the organizers? Yes, them. The poor, sweaty people, running around from one conference room to another, arranging your mic, asking you if everything is ok, those people that you corresponded with for months prior to the event. The organizers matter. A lot. They are the soul of these events and you want to have them close to you. Pro tip? Cultivate the routine of thanking your hosts, you can do this during or after the event. Be polite and respectful. If you every do organize an event, you will see how hard the task really is. Be tolerant and helpful and provide them honest feedback. What goes around comes around.

Yeah, ok, thanks, but what about your personal opinion about this journey?

It really isn’t over. My journey I mean. I’m an SRE turned Developer Advocate. DevRel. Tech writer. Developer Experience Engineer. Still an engineer. Working in Marketing. Working in Sales. Working in Engineering. Is it easier than an engineering job? Not really. Is it more fun? It depends. Does it give you more freedom?

Now you touched the point that matters.

If you never felt free in your engineering job DevRel isn’t automatically a way out. Doing a Developer Advocate job means breaking communication patterns, understanding how an engineer, a developer thinks, acts and anticipate what they need. Offer them a solution, the means to get better at their work, providing them with a learning path that they can explore. Offer them a type of “freedom”. It’s called enablement.

Final thoughts

I’m discovering new things every day. After 2 years shifting from a Senior SRE job to an official Developer Advocate position, I can say that my journey only has begun. It’s a constant work in progress. I’m staying updated with technical content, I’m learning, I’m more active on social media, I’m more communicative. I listen more. I advocate for my own voice. I express myself more.

Did I want all of this? Yes. Does it feel good to work to achieve this? Yes.

Every journey remains a personal journey, filled with personal motivation. I can say that public speaking helps unmuddle ideas, add structure, voice out inner doubts, technical debt, engage with peers and expand one’s network. It’s definitely worth it. Whether you are doing it for a short or long term. Whether you want to stay in your current tech role or not. Public speaking should be an achievable target for everyone. Not a hurdle, not a fear, not meant only for “some people”.

Update: I go over these tips and much more in this YouTube interview.

Stay in touch, ask me questions:

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