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Goodebye Forever Probably: Why I’m leaving developer relations
- mproud 3mo agoHeadline typo
- stavros 3mo agoOn birds, nature, and being carefree The good parts of DevRel The difficult parts of DevRel Arbitrary measures of success Fighting to be valued and justify my existence On being the face of a company AI is killing developer education What’s next for me It took me quite a bit of time to realise this wasn't modern poetry, but the TOC.
- sys_64738 3mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- zulux 3mo agoMan, I’m out of touch. I grew up when tech was us nerds making things. Value was in building things and solving problems. Not in vague connection, curated vulnerability, or coordinating other coordinators.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- fragmede 3mo agoNah, that work was always there, silently happening in the background, you just weren't aware of it going on. Various hacker conventions and publications like lwn.net provide intangible value. They haven't gotten anyone yacht money, but they've facilitated more than any of us will ever know.
- chickensong 3mo agoDon't worry, it's still that too.
- sph 3mo agoExcept the nerds have become managers of an idiot savant.
- bubbi 3mo ago[dead]
- the_real_cher 3mo agoHow come theres no x-relations in other jobs? You never hear about Nurse Relations or Mechanic Relations.
- jeremywho 3mo agoI always thought of developer relations as essentially a tech-sales role. Isn't that ultimately what its trying to do, "educate" people to use your product?
- hilariously 3mo agoIt depends but generally its a marketing focused role with an inherent sales pitch - helping you to solve problems with their software means you buy more of their thing and get their brand out there. Seeing a lot of it collapse into "solution engineering" (tech focused sales) or "forward deployed engineers" which basically are all different versions of the same idea with less marketing focus.
- coffeebeqn 3mo agoThis definitely exists in the medical sector but it’s in the sales org. Plus I’m sure they have people who come over to show how to operate the MRI machine you bought
- zerotolerance 3mo agoThis is an excellent question and the answer is maybe not too surprising. Where mechanics buy their own tools and nurses have little tool purchasing power, developers produce machinery that is costly to change and if they struggle to use something (activation risk) then we can't get that lock-in to stick. DevRel isn't for the individuals, it is for influencing the aggregate so they get their companies stuck with the solution.
- gordonhart 3mo agoTons of traditional companies have x-relations employees, they're just not titled as such. Attending trade shows, developing distributor relationships, constructing and distributing demo materials, building local/state/federal government support networks, driving the branded truck around town — all of these are very common in non-tech industries and are basically analogous to DevRel engineer responsibilities.
- carimura 3mo agothere seems to be a lot of burnout from folks who have been in tech for a decent stretch, not just devrel. AI is an accelerant but not the only reason. probably the "power swap" as well as money has stopped pouring into hiring and jobs are more scare now and for the first time in, ever (?), employers have more leverage.
- jazzpush2 3mo agoA lot of DevRel seems to fail/get a poor reputation because the individual seems more focused on making themselves the center of attention/launching their influencer career versus actually trying to help others use their product. This seems more true the more prestigious the company you work for is, as you get free prestige without having gone through the grind to get in as a SWE/Researcher.
- greygoo222 3mo agoHas anyone ever heard of this person? Why did this get posted?
- bananaboy 3mo agoI was wondering the same thing