Developer relations jobs: How to become a DevRel
Seasoned DevRel, PS Author, and founder of Docu Agency, Michiel Mulders, shares how to successfully get your start in Developer Relations.
Aug 15, 2024 • 8 Minute Read
Are you seeking a dynamic role that combines your technical skills with other talents you've gained in previous positions? Or are you a marketer eager to transition into a more technical field? If so, Developer Relations (DevRel) might be your perfect career path.
This blog post explores the exciting and new world of DevRel, providing insights into what the role entails, the skills needed to succeed, and how you can leverage your unique background to excel in this rapidly growing field.
What is DevRel (Developer Relations)?
Developer Relations (DevRel) manages a one-to-many relationship for a technical product by educating and engaging developers. DevRels create value by attracting potential clients and upskilling existing users, fostering a deeper connection with the product.
The practice area of DevRel involves building and nurturing a community of developers through education, support, and providing high-quality technical resources. A common misconception is that DevRels are hidden salespeople. This is not true at all, as DevRels never engage in the selling process, but they may host technical enablement sessions as part of the sales pipeline.
A DevRel focuses on building a strong community around a technical product. Community building is important to create loyal product users. Further, a vibrant community acts as a powerful endorsement, signalling that the product is well-regarded and effectively solves common challenges developers face. You can compare this to word-of-mouth marketing, where positive experiences and solutions are shared among peers.
What does a DevRel specialist do?
A DevRel specialist can have multiple trades. There’s no single, defined skill set required to excel in DevRel.
Anyone can become a DevRel, but it’s key to understand a developer's learning journey and think in terms of funnels. Developers are still buyers at different stages of the buying process. For instance, one developer might be in the exploration phase comparing different technical solutions, while another is trying to build a proof of concept using your technology to prove to their engineering manager that the solution can effectively solve their problem.
DevRel specialists often operate in one or more of the following areas:
Developer marketing: Focuses on creating awareness through content marketing, social media, events, and collaborations.
Developer success: Ensures developers can achieve their goals and maximize the value they derive from the product.
Developer education: Empowers developers by creating documentation, tutorials, webinars, workshops, and other educational materials to enhance their skills and understanding of the product.
Developer experience: Optimizes how developers interact with the product by making the experience as seamless, well-documented, and intuitive as possible.
What can we learn from these four key DevRel areas? DevRel is not confined to a single role or skill set. You can excel at marketing, content creation, education, or enhancing the developer experience. The best DevRel specialists often master multiple skill sets or come from diverse domains, transferring their skills to excel in Developer Relations.
Do developer relations jobs pay well?
The role of a DevRel specialist has grown in popularity as businesses understand the power of community building over traditional sales methods. This shift in approach has led to increased compensation for DevRel specialists. You can find higher wages among DevRel specialists who master different skill sets.
Having a strong technical foundation is crucial, as it allows you to bridge the gap between technical expertise and marketing communication. DevRel specialists are uniquely positioned to connect these two areas by either being technical experts who can effectively communicate marketing messages or marketers who can understand and speak the technical language. In short, the more proficient you are at combining technical skills with marketing savvy, the better your potential compensation.
A bit about my story: How I got into Developer Relations
My journey into Developer Relations began as a software engineer. After a significant layoff at my company, I was offered a role on the marketing team due to my prior experience writing technical blog posts. In this new role, I was responsible for speaking at conferences, writing blogs, developing demos and tutorials, and assisting the marketing team with technical communication.
This first experience of developer marketing ignited my passion for Developer Relations. I was particularly interested in improving developer experience and optimizing documentation. Over the past decade, documentation has evolved from dull and challenging to understand to highly interactive and engaging, further motivating me.
This passion fueled my journey to become a DevRel specialist, focusing on areas such as developer marketing, education, and experience.
How do you become a DevRel professional?
To become a DevRel specialist, you can draw on diverse skills. While having a technical background is advantageous, it's not a strict requirement. You don't necessarily need to be a developer. Other skills, such as communication, marketing, and community-building, are equally important.
However, having a minimal technical foundation is recommended. Familiarity with a popular programming language like JavaScript can be beneficial. Further, basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is necessary for building prototypes. I advise learning a popular front-end framework like React to show your ability to work with modern web technologies.
Strong communication skills are vital for creating content, speaking at events, and engaging with the developer community. By combining these skills, you can build a successful career in Developer Relations.
Having different skills can be advantageous in a DevRel role. For instance, a UX designer with technical knowledge can become a DevRel specialist focused on Developer Experience, using their user experience design skills to improve developer tools.
Therefore, continuous learning is important. Expand your skills in different domains, such as marketing, education, developer experience, and developer success. Continuous learning will give you the best odds of landing a job as a DevRel specialist.
How can I transition from developer or marketer to Developer Relations?
It's a bit easier to transition when you are already a developer or a marketer. Here's a suggested path for both careers.
Developer to DevRel
As a developer, you already have a good technical foundation. Now, it’s time to showcase your communication skills. Here are some steps to consider:
Build your portfolio: Like every job you want to apply for, build up a portfolio of artifacts you are proud of that are relevant to the role of a DevRel. You can get started with writing a blog post about your favourite tool or technology, or take it one step further by creating an educational tutorial. Those exercises show that you can explain complex concepts clearly.
Apply for conferences: Apply to speak at industry conferences to build up your personal brand and on-stage confidence.
Learn marketing basics: Consider pursuing certifications, like Google Analytics, that are relevant to the marketing field. Measuring and analyzing the performance of your blog posts or technical documentation is an integral part of the DevRel job.
Get creative and build a fun portfolio of interesting communication-related artifacts, as these will be key to apply for DevRel roles.
Marketer to DevRel
If you’re coming from a marketing background, you already excel in communication. The next step is to show your technical proficiency or value in technical processes.
Enhance your technical skills: By learning basic programming, you can communicate better with developers. You don’t need to become a coding expert, though.
Understand technical concepts: It would help if you had a solid understanding of technical concepts. Providing accurate technical information is crucial, as mistakes can quickly undermine credibility.
Other roles to DevRel
If you are coming from a different field, you can still become a DevRel with a minimal technical foundation. Here are some examples of roles that have successfully transitioned into DevRel, highlighting how their skills contributed to our team:
UX designer: I worked with a UX designer who focused on creating user-friendly documentation. She identified friction points that caused developers to be frustrated and helped DevRels conduct friction audits for developer tools.
Teacher: In my previous role, I collaborated with a teacher who learned to code. Educators possess excellent teaching skills, which are highly transferable to DevRel. This person helped us a lot with creating educational content like workshops, courses, or demos.
These examples show that DevRel is a field that welcomes professionals from various backgrounds. By tapping into their unique skills and experiences, these professionals have successfully carved out a niche in DevRel.
How many years of developer experience should I have as a DevRel specialist?
It's uncommon for people to start their careers as DevRel specialists. The main reason is that graduates start as either marketers or developers and may only be aware of the DevRel role later in their careers, as was the case for me.
The DevRel role is ideal for those with 3 – 5 years of experience in a technical field. As a developer, I found the coding routine from 9 AM to 5 PM limiting and wanted a more creative role that still involved technical work. This led me to discover the DevRel position.
Therefore, I recommend transitioning to a DevRel role after gaining at least three years of work experience. It's advantageous to have worked in various roles and developed a diverse skill set, which you can combine as a DevRel specialist.
Conclusion
Developer Relations offers a unique and rewarding career path that combines technical expertise with marketing and community-building skills. Whether from a development background or a marketing role, transitioning into DevRel allows you to leverage your diverse skill set.
My biggest tip is to start following DevRel specialists on LinkedIn and learning from them. Be curious and try things yourself. Practical learning beats theory, especially in DevRel.
Build your DevRel portfolio by contributing to the Pluralsight blog
Writing articles is a good way to build up your portfolio to snag that future DevRel position. If you’ve got an article you want to write, we want to hear from you! Visit our community contribution page and register your interest.
Additional learning resources
If you’re looking for more advice on furthering your tech career, you might benefit from reading the articles below:
- How to get into tech with no experience: 12 tips and tricks
- How to become an AI expert with no experience
- How to get into cybersecurity with no prior experience
- How to become a software developer with no prior experience
- How to become a cloud engineer with no prior experience
- The 10 most in-demand tech skills in 2024 (with skill tests)
- What are the best paying tech jobs to have in 2024?
- 8 tech interview and resume tips to stand out and get hired
- How to network in tech and land jobs (An introvert-friendly guide)
