off-the-stack
cd ~/careers
Developer relationsaka "DevRel"

Developer Advocate

Get paid to build, write, speak, and be a real engineer in public.

Entry
$90k
Mid
$135k
Senior
$190k+
Demand
Steady

DevRel sits between a company's product and its developer community: you build demos, write docs and posts, give talks, and carry developer pain back into the product. It's for engineers who are genuinely good at communicating — a combination rare enough that companies pay senior-engineer money for it.

The myth

It's just marketing with a hoodie.

The reality

You ship real sample code, fix the docs, file the product bugs developers hit, and are expected to stay technical enough that engineers respect you.

cat ./what_you_actually_do.md

  • Build reference apps and demos that show the product doing something real and non-trivial.
  • Write the tutorial, the blog post, the docs page that unblocks thousands of strangers.
  • Speak at meetups and conferences — and increasingly, make video, because that's where developers actually learn now.
  • Run the feedback loop: turn community pain into prioritized product input engineering trusts.
  • Be present where developers are (GitHub, Discord, X, forums) without being a walking ad.

cat ./why_underrated.md

Engineers assume it's 'not real engineering' and writers assume it's 'too technical', so it falls in a gap neither group claims. But that gap is the whole point — the population of people who can both build credibly and communicate clearly is tiny, and it's exactly what dev-tools companies are desperate for. Done well, DevRel also compounds: every post, talk, and repo builds a public reputation that's portable and makes you progressively harder to replace.

grep -i 'good fit' ./who.md

  • Engineers who like teaching and don't flinch at a camera or a stage.
  • People who already write, stream, or post about tech for fun.
  • Builders who want their work to be public and personal-brand-building.

cat ./pay.md

Pay tracks senior engineering at dev-tools companies because that's who you're hired from and who you talk to. The catch: DevRel headcount is sensitive to budget cycles — it expands fast in good times and is among the first cut in bad ones. A strong public body of work is your job security.

./break_in.sh

  1. Build in public, starting now

    Blog, post, make videos about what you build. A consistent public trail is 80% of a DevRel hire — companies want proof, not promises.

  2. Contribute to a dev tool you love

    Fix the docs, answer community questions, build an integration. You're auditioning for the exact job.

  3. Give one talk

    A local meetup counts. Being demonstrably able to stand up and explain something well is the hardest box to tick.

  4. Target a product you actually use

    Authentic enthusiasm is unfakeable and is half of what's being hired. Apply where you're already a genuine fan.

tail -f ./a_day.log

  • 09:00Finish a sample app for a launch; hit a rough edge and file the bug your own users would've hit.
  • 11:00Draft a tutorial post and record a short companion video.
  • 14:00Community time: answer GitHub issues and Discord questions, collect recurring pain points.
  • 16:00Bring that pain to a product sync with specific, receipt-backed feedback.

ls ./toolbelt

  • Your strongest language
  • Git & GitHub
  • Writing
  • Video / screencasting
  • Public speaking
  • Docs tooling