An IC's take on DevRel in 2025

Mon, 05 May 2025 17:35:52 -0000

I finished reading Ashley's Post on What is DevRel (2025 Edition). There is a reason that Ashley is my skip for life1. Her insight is one that leads with empathy, but doesn't shy away from reality. I think she did a wonderful job. I only want to add some thoughts as an IC that sheds a little light in the day-to-day worries.

Of course this is my personal experience and I have share these thoughts with other who have similar feelings. That said, I don't speak for them. If you are more interested. Ask your local DevRel person how they're doing.

Companies still don't know what to do with DevRel and that is why layoffs hit us hard

I've been in DevRel at 3 Companies (Elastic, Microsoft, and Aiven) and through communities, I've heard the experiences of being a Developer Advocate in at least another 15 companies. All of the companies mentioned laid off a large portion of their DevRel team in the time I worked with them or later.

I'm not here to say all of the advocates that were let go were perfect fits for the company, I just don't believe they were all bad. DevRel is so abstract as an industry that no one (not even a foundation... sorry folks although I'm glad you're trying) is going to crack the code for How To DevRel because every team needs something different and that's why devrel works. When a company needs flexibility, that often comes from the people that sit somewhere between Marketing, Sales, Engineering, and Product (That's us, DevRel, if you weren't sure). So why does it hurt...

To be clear: not everything that matters is measurable. You can’t put a number on belonging. You can’t quantify the moment someone watches a talk, tries a thing, and finally gets it.

You also can't measure the "Wow that person was an amazing human. I'm going to look into the company that pays them". You definitely can't measure that when it is happening on the weekend in that person's free time. Developer and Community folk tend to do so much in their off-time that it really is impossible to consider all the touch points that person has that lead to a discussion.

What I tend to see are leaders will take the trauma of being told they didn't do VALUE_PROP enough. They then work to avoid that trauma. When they are in charge, they double, triple, quadruple down on VALUE_PROP and treat all the intangibles as fodder to be scrapped for cold empirical actions connected to a KPI.

We're searching for a solution where there isn't one. In the PGDataDay workshop I was in, Lætitia Avrot, mentioned that designing a system is an art, not a science. In the world backed by computer science, I do believe that DevRel is the artform.

There isn't a do X, stay hired approach to anything in tech. The current situation is horrible. People get "Exceeds Expectations" and still get chopped, not promoted, not compensated, etc. Then we grumble in the group chat and keep or mouths closed in the team meetings because we're afraid to say anything.

The fear of being fired/laid off makes me physically sick, scared, and paranoid. In 2023, Microsoft announced layoffs and the org spent 3 months talking about how morale was terrible and everyone was afraid. Many folks tried to silently keep existing like we were in A Quiet Place. I remember thinking, "If I keep my head down, they'll forget I'm here and I can do my work peacefully".

I recently got advice that my word-choices were defensive towards DevRel. That's because I've seen 75% of my team disappear, usually before a lot of folks were getting ready to travel (or were in the midst of travelling). I've also seen old teammates shine and do amazing things when they weren't terrified. I need to fix this in my life.

The demand on some DevRel is like making a souffle at a rock concert

I think Ashley touched on a very poignant point but perhaps the industry isn't actually doing this everywhere.

This breadth is why the lone evangelist model ... is fading out and being replaced by more cross-functional, collaborative teams: content specialists, engineers, community managers, programs leads, all working together to build better developer experiences.

FROM WHAT I SEE, DevRel teams shrink smaller than advised and RIF2 most of the team doing X. Then the team remaining is is ALWAYS to then focus on doing X!

Advocates who are specialized in one part of the game can no longer min/max their way to success. They have to do it all and they need to be good at all of it. Or they need to get to a big company and stay and pray they aren't let go.

Developers still look at us with no seriousness, but the communities give us credibility

Technical credibility isn’t optional in this work, it’s foundational.

The gatekeeping Ashley mentions is so real. Many advocate's have a light knowledge of how to do the customer's thing and a real depth on how to show the customer what they need to DO their thing.

I've never been a DBA, yet I advocate for a company that I call Your Favorite DBA's Favorite DBA (like MF DOOM). The more I learn about the complexities of what your System Architect has to think about when figuring out what stack to deploy, the more I love the dive of helping them answer that question. That said, I've been called a booth babe. I've been asked if there is a real engineer at the booth. And I have (yes in paranoia) told people that I'm happy to answer questions, but I will not be responding to comments, including those that talk about how articulate I am.

A lot of this is ignorance and lack of exposure. Having joined development teams, I've been told my TECHNICAL and presentation skills contributed directly to team's success.

To put it bluntly, we are your kind of nerd. We home-lab. We keep up with all the news and drama around your favorite language. We get more of your concerns than you think. Again the day-to-day may not look like an SWE's, but we got here for a reason and we're going to make a big impact if we're doing it right...

Which takes us to the community thing. We can't write 5-6 figure checks to every conference and meetup that is important. That said, we can offer a few hundreds of dollars in support. That conference organizer is usually a senior/staff or higher at some company and a lot of those long-term decisions are made with small investments in many places. There are a few companies that I saw early in my career that when I'm looking for work or some solution, I immediately think of the individuals who represented them and look at see where they are.

Purchasing decisions follow the DA, not the company. When I go to an event, people usually see Aiven and then ask if is still there. When I say "Yeah they are!" people go "That's awesome, what are y'all working on!" When I say, "Unfortunately, they were hit with layoffs", people go "That's unfortunate, well best of luck" and then leave.This literally happened to me last week.

The best advocates are always 30 seconds away from being fired

I don't mean that many advocates are actively sabotaging their careers. In fact they are usually doing the opposite. I love the Python community. That is why I DM the Flask maintainer, participate in the Django Community, and use FastAPI for most of my demos. We know a little about everything, a little more about one thing, and most importantly, WE KNOW EVERYONE. We are that friend that will absolutely NOT take your side in the breakup when you were the one in the wrong. When we're at the booth and someone asks us about that thing the company did that was controversial, we will give you the messaging that we're supposed to give you, but with eyes that tell you everything.

We are told that we're not loyal, because we job hop, but we job hop now to get promoted or avoid being laid off. Ashley's perfect balance of corporate-friendly communication calls it clearly.

... today, the only way we can do both, advocate for developers and drive business value, is by building and maintaining a very specific kind of trust: credibility with the business, and authenticity with the community.

Job hopping often comes when authenticity is at risk. We want to love the company but they are doing things that make it hard to stick around. Sometimes, it's strictly business. That's what DAs are often told when they are laid off.

We aren't going to flame our company in these streets but we're going to have a lot of conversations in the back-channel to salve the company's relationship, and our future careers.

Is DevRel a great job in 2025

¯_(ツ)/¯... It's the job I have. I love what I do. A lot of people glorify what I do (and how I do it). I think devrel is the most _human job in tech. That said, the tech industry is working to eliminate a need for humans day-by-day, so I will answer in the way that most people can't stand but is the truth... it depends.

It depends on the thickness of your skin, your ability to clap back, and your tolerance for asking for help and being met with reduction in force. It also depends on how much you love the art of storytelling, shadow-boxing, and constant learning.

Most importantly, it depends on if you are someone that can lead with empathy, give that angry developer an embrace (metaphorically) to let them know that you understand they they are mad and you are the person in front of the sign that is the source of their frustration. You may even agree with them that the situation sucks and there doesn't seem like a good solution. It depends on if you are an influencer because you want to help others or help yourself.

But I would say roll a D20 and find out the results because sometimes you can be doing all the right things and still get hit with a critical miss.

1. skip is short for "skip-level manager, or my bosses's boss". Ashley interview me at Microsoft but left before I joined. ↩

2. RIF: Reduction in Force. Funny in how RIF used to mean READING IS FUNdamental ↩