Goodbye, forever, probably
47 points by FedericoSchonborn
47 points by FedericoSchonborn
good for the OP. it's valuable to talk openly about burnout and what causes it; I'm sure there are a lot of people in the same boat who think they are the only one experiencing that, or conversely that that is just what work is like.
I really appreciated the brutal honesty in this post. I feel like DevRel must be going through a lot of convulsions now because of changes in the job market, coding agents, etc. My heart goes out to people like the author who worked so hard to elevate their fellow devs and are feeling similarly lost right now.
There are many things I want to say about how DevRel has turned out right now, but I want to say none of them from my main account lol
I feel like DevRel must be going through a lot of convulsions now because of changes in the job market, coding agents, etc.
The main thing that makes devrel to be a horrible position to be in, has little to do with agents or changes in the job market. It's just for so many reasons a problematic space. You're limited in your career trajectory because there is just no obvious place to go, you get to become the fall person for anything that goes wrong with a company on social networks which is emotionally drowning, when you switch a company you take all the baggage with you because people still associate you with what you did before you have no clear (good) KPIs to work with if someone asks you to demonstrate your worth. And all of that does not even include the toll on cranking out content, traveling to places, general job insecurity etc.
Pretty much all the incentives are misaligned with devrel from where I sit. All my conversations with people over the last 15 years who were in this role did at no point in time give me a good impression of that role we created as an industry.
The entire vibe has shifted. The majority of [community] folks are still on Twitter but there’s so much AI grifting and misery and hate in that place. LinkedIn is a parody of itself at this point. Bluesky feels reasonably cosy but way too much of a bubble. The community isn’t there. The forums are dead, the new Discord is quiet.
I'm wondering why this is the case it feels like everyone moved to talking privately or publicly posting but nothing in between.
I don't want to be disrespectful, but for years and years I've been wondering what is the purpose of developer relations beyond trying to promote your company's tech, at which point you are basically an indirect sales person. We had a huge hype of tech companies getting rich by selling tech to other tech companies, but I don't think that can continue forever.
Not sure what to think of DevRel as a dedicated role. I think about "glue" roles, dev management roles, and where they fit in. But I couldn't help but have the thought that the "measure what matters" mindset makes me wonder if the things that matter are always measurable.
It's a real capitalist existential crises moment.
I am going to be that guy, but simply scrolling this web page caused my iPad browser to crash 5 or more times. Couldn’t finish reading the article.