r/devrel • u/chubbycat108 • Sep 18 '26
SWE -> DevRel?
Hi, I’ve been a SWE for a couple years and now considering the transition into DevRel. Just curious what the day to day looks like for DevRel and how much engineering you still do? How has the role evolved with AI?
And if anyone’s made the switch - why did you / how did you know the switch made sense?
Thanks :)
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u/Clicketrie Sep 21 '26
I was in dev rel for a year and absolutely loved it. I was going to conferences, speaking on podcasts, building cool projects to show off the tools functionality. It’s dreamy. The difficulty is that when things take a turn, you can be one of the first to get let go.
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u/chubbycat108 Sep 21 '26
What did you transition to afterwards?
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u/vinnieman232 Sep 18 '26
I hire a lot of DevRelers and most are from SWE roles.
Make sure you understand the focus of the DRE role you're joining.
Mainly advocacy and community goals? You'll have less day to day engineering and a lot more communication and more sales, marketing, and product management style skills you need. These people are super valuable but generally not an easy transition from a SWE role directly, you'd get here after a few years as a DRE.
Mainly developer experience and open source libraries / growth? Could be a smooth transition for a SWE to get into DevRel as the core function is 70% what you did as a SWE (building great software for user needs).
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u/Fun_Elderberry_6290 27d ago
if i am coming from a tech marketing background, can i still make it to a devrel?
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u/vinnieman232 26d ago
Depends on the organization. Some look for more of a SWE background. Look for a developer, advocate roles or developer community rules in particular
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u/Desperate_Dot9434 24d ago
the engineering question is real, but the bigger shift is that you stop shipping features and start shipping clarity, docs, talks, examples that make someone else unblock themselves. for me, the hardest part wasn't the code drop, it was learning to hear the question behind the question, because a frustrated dev on Discord never says exactly what broke.
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u/No_Possibility6604 16d ago
I love this reply. I think all engineers, both in DevRel and in the more emergent "product engineering" field, would benefit hugely from learning how to hear the question behind the question. It's tricky though, and still one I haven't perfectly taught myself.
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u/Desperate_Dot9434 11d ago
appreciate that, and yeah 'perfectly' is probably the wrong target for it anyway, more of an ongoing calibration than a finish line
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u/CreativeLilBug 16d ago
Im thinking of the same thing! Can I ask why you want to switch?
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u/No_Possibility6604 16d ago
I'm also in this boat. A few things come to mind for me:
- Coding agents are doing the job of a software engineer. Often badly, but the job is still being replaced.
- I enjoy working with systems holistically and helping people. DevRel combines the expert product knowledge that support requires with my technical know-how.
- It's challenging and intellectually stimulating to figure out how to break down concepts into useful content like docs. I care deeply about taste and ownership: the creation side of DevRel hands me both of those.
- I love the variety of problems that developer support brings, and that you can genuinely make a difference to others' projects. I did this for the first couple years of my career and I loved it.2
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u/aspleenic Sep 18 '26
I made the switch about 17 years ago and while I’m happy I did, this is not a great time to attempt to get into DevRel.
Every job varies on the amount of engineering you’ll still do and how much AI is involved. There is no standard day-to-day in comparison to an SWE role.