The practice of DevRel is something that can vary hugely amongst those who engage in it, so it’s always fascinating to see how different companies approach DevRel. In this episode, we’re speaking to Liran Tal, director of developer advocacy at Snyk, about how his team makes use of DevRel.
Liran is a big believer in empathy, and infuses it into every aspect of his developer advocacy work. It’s a theme that has come up repeatedly on the podcast recently, and Liran is another proponent of empathy being at the centre of how we engage with developers.
Like many people, Liran came through the engineering pipeline, and made the jump to DevRel when he started at Snyk, but he explains why this “jump” was actually more of a step, as he had already used his engineering work to initiate community events and public speaking opportunities, so DevRel felt like a natural place to take those skills.
As an engineer using JavaScript and open source, Liran began to see the immense value of a hive-like community, connecting hundreds, or thousands of people to collaborate and share information, and he knew he wanted to live in that space. And luckily, as he explains, no one needs permission to start being a DevRel. No matter what specific area you work in, you can stealthily start practising public speaking, or building communities, and then when you’re ready to officially start looking for that DevRel job, you’ll already have some idea of what you’re doing.
Liran speaks about the “DevRel’ ladder, and the common question of how those who want to can climb it. DevRel is one of those fields with endless room to grow. You may start out knowing nothing about the technical side, and end up with a whole new set of skills that are now available to you. But for most of us, the ladder thing is secondary to doing something you’re really passionate about, and speaking to Liran has only increased that passion for us here at Voxgig.
Reach out to Liran here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talliran/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
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