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Goodebye Forever Probably: Why I’m leaving developer relations

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Re: Goodebye Forever Probably: Why I’m leaving developer relations

#11

Post by hilariously »

jeremywho wrote: post #9
the_real_cher wrote: post #8

How come theres no x-relations in other jobs? You never hear about Nurse Relations or Mechanic Relations.

I 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?

It 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.

Re: Goodebye Forever Probably: Why I’m leaving developer relations

#12

Post by gordonhart »

the_real_cher wrote: post #8

How come theres no x-relations in other jobs? You never hear about Nurse Relations or Mechanic Relations.

Tons 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.

Re: Goodebye Forever Probably: Why I’m leaving developer relations

#14

Post by coffeebeqn »

jeremywho wrote: post #9
the_real_cher wrote: post #8

How come theres no x-relations in other jobs? You never hear about Nurse Relations or Mechanic Relations.

I 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?

This 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

Re: Goodebye Forever Probably: Why I’m leaving developer relations

#15

Post by tptacek »

gordonhart wrote: post #12
the_real_cher wrote: post #8

How come theres no x-relations in other jobs? You never hear about Nurse Relations or Mechanic Relations.

Tons 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.

It's also an enormous and heavily specialized market, so where an aerospace company might need only a small staff of people who speak aeroese to vendors and clients, if you're selling developer tools you probably need a bunch just for coverage of all the different venues you operate in.

Re: Goodebye Forever Probably: Why I’m leaving developer relations

#16

Post by carimura »

there 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.

Re: Goodebye Forever Probably: Why I’m leaving developer relations

#18

Post by jazzpush2 »

A 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.

Re: Goodebye Forever Probably: Why I’m leaving developer relations

#19

Post by hammock »

tptacek wrote: post #15
gordonhart wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tons 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.

It's also an enormous and heavily specialized market, so where an aerospace company might need only a small staff of people who speak aeroese to vendors and clients, if you're selling developer tools you probably need a bunch just for coverage of all the different venues you operate in.

Boeing and other aerospace companies have teams of several hundreds that do this work.
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