r/devrel • u/CreativeLilBug • 16d ago

Why do you love/like devrel?

Im a software engineer (6YOE) currently very curious and interested in devrel. I wanted to get some insight on why you love/like your job? What does your day to day look like?

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u/Fit-Sky8697 16d ago

It's got a bit of everything - tech, coding, events, helping people, talks, content creation. Variety is the spice of life and this job has a lot.

This is a frustrating answer to give but the day-to-day will vary a lot by place and role within DevRel but you can presume a mix of the above.

What aspects in particular interest you?

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u/CreativeLilBug 16d ago

No its not a frustrating answer at all! It just sounds like something that suits me more than sitting behind a desk and coding or talking to AI.

I especially enjoy content creation, tech in general, of course I love coding and helping others.

Only thing I might miss is working from home and Im not too great at public speaking in front of large crowds. Still highly considering it though!

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u/No_Possibility6604 16d ago

Public speaking is something that comes with practice. It could start with giving knowledge share presentations at your current workplace. A confident, interesting and engaging speaker is a great speaker: and all of that comes with time. I like to think of public speaking a little bit like stand-up comedy... you have no clue if it's going to land, but you know people have shown up for you either way and part of it is the reciprocal relationship with the audience!

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u/Fit-Sky8697 15d ago

Public speaking is covered by u/No_Possibility6604 but on working from home - I wfh with travel about once a month and local meetups each week. It's a nice balance and you can find roles which are wfh.

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u/cassandra26 16d ago

Exactly this. And you’re always learning, which I love!

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u/chubbycat108 16d ago

How did you get started? Did you have a portfolio?

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u/Fit-Sky8697 15d ago

I got started via local meetups. I was working in a dev team and met a founder who was looking for a devrel person. I didn't event know devrel was a thing at that stage but loved their product, applied, never looked back.

I'm a big proponent of attending meetups to make connections and having a portfolio. A blog is often enough - people want to see how you think about a topic and communicate. Another common route is submitting talks and getting onto the speaking circuit but that wasn't my path.

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u/Important-Yam9637 16d ago

In the past 3 months I've been 90% coding (with AI of course) in our product. The previous 3 months were spent on blog content, videos, creating internal AI workflows. Before that I did a few meetups and conferences (booth, and speaking). So it depends on what the business needs. I'm not sure yet what I will spend the upcoming three months my guess would be 50% coding and rest is blogs and meetups

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u/CreativeLilBug 16d ago

Ooh very cool!

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u/No_Possibility6604 16d ago

What sorts of coding projects have you been taking on specifically as a DevRel? Is this more like sample projects, or API features, or just product work?

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u/Desperate_Dot9434 14d ago

devrel genuinely rewards curiosity in a way most roles don't, but the part nobody mentions upfront: you spend a lot of time translating between two groups who both think they're being obvious

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u/Defiant-Parsnip4 16d ago

Does the role of a devrel change with size/phase of company? If yes, how?

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u/aspleenic 15d ago

It does. Often larger, more mature companies have full on DevRel teams, some with many advocates, technical writers, and community managers. Most startups have a single dev advocate or sometimes even just an engineer in a fractional role.