The Devrel Digest June 2024: One Whole Year of the DevRel Digest

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Liz Acosta

Happy first birthday to the DevRel Digest!

One year ago, I decided to start writing the DevRel Digest. At that point, it had been only three months since I was laid off. It had been recommended to me to include regular content creation in my job search strategy and a roundup of the DevRel news, events, thoughts, and opinions I was already consuming seemed highly feasible and beneficial for the community. So I started writing.

A lot has happened in just one year, and despite all the ups and downs, I managed to publish a DevRel Digest each other. I feel accomplished and proud of myself! Thank you for being a part of this endeavor and holding space for its evolution.

Here’s a retrospective of the past twelve months and some thoughts for the future of the DevRel Digest.

Gary has always been a part of the DevRel Digest

The very first DevRel Digest was a LinkedIn article crowned with a photo of the bestest boy ever – Gary.

Gary getting the Caravaggio treatment in the photo studio

While Gary’s role in the DevRel Digest has evolved, he has been there since day one. For those of you who are unfortunately unacquainted, Gary is a 14-year-old pug. Gary came into my life when I met my ex, along with an “adopted little sister” pug named Lily. Lily sadly passed away a couple of years ago when she developed cancer. I confess I was a little disappointed to be left with Gary – which was totally unfair of me because Gary is the sweetest little man. I’m glad I finally saw the light because the DevRel Digest wouldn’t be the same without Gary.

With the breakup, I am uncertain if I will get to see Gary again. Fortunately, I have plenty of photos, so Gary will continue to show up in the Digest!

The early days on Medium

Initially, I planned on publishing to several platforms to maximize reach, but the return on investment was too low to justify the effort, so I switched to Medium. I switched to Medium because I had used the platform in its early days with some success and it seemed like the appropriate place for the Digest.

From its inception to October 2023, the DevRel Digest lived on Medium. During that time, Developer Relations as a practice and as an organizational role was in the middle of emerging from some of the bitter realities of the tech industry in the face of COVID-19. Without conferences to speak and represent companies at, DevRel roles seemed suddenly superfluous and lots of people in the field lost their jobs or saw their teams downsized not just in size, but in budget.

DevRel has always struggled to prove its worth as a specialty in which impact can be hard to explicitly quantify, but after the start of the pandemic, it became even more urgent to establish meaningful metrics. This necessitated a reassessment of the age-old question: “What even is DevRel?” These are the themes reflected in the early DevRel Digest and are worth revisiting as the field continues to recover.

The August DevRel Digest is when I began incorporating tarot – and poorly Photoshopping Gary into tarot cards. And that’s when the DevRel Digest really began to find its voice.

Gary making his tarot debut

From Medium to Dev.to

I started using Medium before its current monetization structure. I liked it then, but now Medium feels a little more inaccessible than I would prefer. I was intrigued when I started to see content on Dev.to. The ability to write in Markdown feels appealingly developer first. Moreover, Dev.to’s audience seems more community-oriented and therefore more engaged – the perfect home for the DevRel Digest.

For a couple of months, I published to both Medium and Dev.to, and began publishing exclusively to Dev.to in November. I wish I could say it was a calculated decision derived from extensive data, but it was mostly “just vibes.” I had also written the first of my series on testing strategies for Python and preferred how Dev.to formats code snippets.

DevRel you should know

As the holidays approached and organizations began planning for the next year, it was the perfect opportunity to highlight people in Developer Relations who exemplify the best of the community and the practice. I asked for nominations and was delighted by the enthusiasm of the engagement I received. One of the reasons I don’t think I will ever leave DevRel is the people. They are supportive, collaborative, and inspiring, and I am honored to count myself among them.

I want to do this again this year, but this time I will begin the process earlier! I learned that the more people involved in an effort, the longer it will take. Now that I know people are receptive to the concept, I hope to refine the nomination system and maybe come up with more explicit selection criteria.

Now that we’re halfway done with the year, it is interesting to reread everyone’s predictions for DevRel in 2024.

The DevRel Digest now and tomorrow

I went into 2024 without a job and growing anxiety, so I hired a coach to help with the job search. The first thing she did was reassure me that I am competent and experienced and that I will find a job. The next thing she did was tell me to quit faking it through interviews and to just be myself because that was the only way I was going to find a team I could thrive with.

So I wrote what kind of feels like a dating profile, but for a job, and transmitted it out into the LinkedIn universe. And, to my surprise, I got a response. By Valentine’s Day, I had a job offer that has turned out to be life-changing in so many ways.

Layoffs are still happening in tech and it sucks, but it seems to have slowed down. Most of the people in my job search cohort are now employed, and while many people in DevRel are considering switching to less turbulent and more secure roles, Developer Relations isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Developer Relations continue to evolve and mature, honing in on clearer goals and more precise strategies.

I am still learning how to make time for the DevRel Digest while working a full-time job. I am still figuring out what exactly the DevRel Digest is and I’ve started to collect data as well as try experiments like writing a tutorial instead of the usual Digest. I have also been considering moving to a newsletter format and platform. I just moved into a new apartment, so it will probably be a while before I have the chance to make any decisions!

What I can say for certain is that I am committed to maintaining the DevRel Digest and I am excited to see what the rest of 2024 brings.

Here's to celebrating a second birthday next year!

Gary's got his party hat on!

Events and resources and other notable things

• This is going to be a pretty sparse listing because tomorrow I am speaking at North Bay Python!!! And I need to go practice!
• The 11th Annual DevRel Survey is open from now until July 22nd. The State of DevRel Report is such an important resource and the report is only made possible by survey participants like you and me! Go fill it out!
• DevRelCon is July 18th - 19th in New York. I won’t be attending in person, but if you can, you should check it out!

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Liz Acosta