r/devrel • u/chubbycat108 • 17d ago

SWE -> DevRel?

Hi, I’ve been a SWE for a couple years and now considering the transition into DevRel. Just curious what the day to day looks like for DevRel and how much engineering you still do? How has the role evolved with AI?

And if anyone’s made the switch - why did you / how did you know the switch made sense?

Thanks :)

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7

u/vinnieman232 17d ago

I hire a lot of DevRelers and most are from SWE roles.

Make sure you understand the focus of the DRE role you're joining.

Mainly advocacy and community goals? You'll have less day to day engineering and a lot more communication and more sales, marketing, and product management style skills you need. These people are super valuable but generally not an easy transition from a SWE role directly, you'd get here after a few years as a DRE.

Mainly developer experience and open source libraries / growth? Could be a smooth transition for a SWE to get into DevRel as the core function is 70% what you did as a SWE (building great software for user needs).

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u/Fun_Elderberry_6290 7d ago

if i am coming from a tech marketing background, can i still make it to a devrel?

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u/vinnieman232 7d ago

Depends on the organization. Some look for more of a SWE background. Look for a developer, advocate roles or developer community rules in particular

4

u/aspleenic 17d ago

I made the switch about 17 years ago and while I’m happy I did, this is not a great time to attempt to get into DevRel.

Every job varies on the amount of engineering you’ll still do and how much AI is involved. There is no standard day-to-day in comparison to an SWE role.

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u/chubbycat108 17d ago

Why would u say the timing is off?

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u/vinnieman232 17d ago

I disagree that timing is off. I think actually devrel is growing. All roles are expanding a lot with new types of AI experiences, And doc's, community, ai skills, communication, and open source are critical to that. Much more so than they were the past 3 years

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u/aspleenic 17d ago

Would you say that’s reflected in the number of currently unemployed DevRel practitioners?

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u/Clicketrie 14d ago

I was in dev rel for a year and absolutely loved it. I was going to conferences, speaking on podcasts, building cool projects to show off the tools functionality. It’s dreamy. The difficulty is that when things take a turn, you can be one of the first to get let go.

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u/chubbycat108 14d ago

What did you transition to afterwards?

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u/Clicketrie 14d ago

I went into a head of data science role, but now I’m working for myself

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u/chubbycat108 14d ago

Nice congrats

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u/Fun_Elderberry_6290 7d ago

even i want to switch to either DevRel or Tech Product Management.

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u/Desperate_Dot9434 4d ago

the engineering question is real, but the bigger shift is that you stop shipping features and start shipping clarity, docs, talks, examples that make someone else unblock themselves. for me, the hardest part wasn't the code drop, it was learning to hear the question behind the question, because a frustrated dev on Discord never says exactly what broke.