What would you say you do here?

Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? You know the "what would you say... you do here?" scene? That's kind of what I do. If you're the type of engineer who loves going into the weeds to learn new technologies, doesn't mind a lot of travel, and isn't afraid of the spotlight, then you might like developer advocacy!

Transcript

1. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved What would you say… you do here? Life as a Developer Advocate
2. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Kat Cosgrove Developer Advocate Software Engineer Code Fellows Alum Twitter: @Dixie3Flatline LinkedIn: linkedin/in/katcosgrove
3. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Intro to the Industry - What’s a JFrog? - Hired at first into JFrog’s IoT Team - Trying to solve updates for edge devices - Smart home appliances, building automation, cars - Shockingly difficult problem to solve
4. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved The Car Demo - Raspberry Pi 3B+ running AGL - App update in seconds - Firmware update in minutes - Zero user interruption - Lots of press generated
5. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved What’s Developer Relations?
6. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Developer Relations - Developer Advocates - Community Managers - Events - Customer Success - Product, Marketing, or R&D
7. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Advocate Backgrounds - Technical or Non-technical - Sales, marketing, PMs, teaching - Many never work as engineers - Responsibilities differ - People skills matter here
8. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Community Liason - Community to Leadership - Internal to Leadership - Building demos - Writing technical content - Talking to people - Contributing to OSS
9. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved So, are you still an engineer?
10. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved YES
11. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Talking about Go - Language update introduced Go Modules - Radically different from previous strategies - Necessary, but difficult to convert existing projects - GoCon Japan and Go 10th Anniversary @ Google
12. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Talk Prep - Two weeks of development - Converting Mender to Go v1.13 - Process was relatively undocumented - Official docs are vague - Talk was extremely valuable to the community - Only 7 minutes, but worthwhile
13. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Non-engineering Advocates - Demos built for them - Must understand the technology - May talk about company products more - Important for all to like learning new tech - Technical depth vs Technical breadth
14. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved How about that travel?
15. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved
16. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Traveling - Pros: - Seeing new places is cool - Typically one or two free days - Airline miles - Cons: - Burnout is a thing - Airports are awful - Always “on”
17. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Social Media - Advocates need online presence - Fashion bloggers for engineers - Twitter is very popular - Not controlled by corporate - Opinions are my own - London Spitfire are trash-tier
18. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Getting Talks - Conferences post public Call for Proposal - Occasionally get personal requests - Respond with a pitch and abstract - Some conferences require unique talk - Badge is usually included, travel and hotel less commonly - Honorarium is rare outside of academia
19. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Public Speaking - Talking to anywhere from a handful to hundreds - Yes, I still get nervous - Yes, I’m a little nervous right now - It’s normal - Be confident that you are the expert - Be aware of imposter syndrome
20. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Imposter Syndrome - The feeling that you have faked your qualifications and are waiting to be caught - Irrational, destructive thought pattern - Extremely common - Have someone to talk you down
21. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Writing - Technical documentation, tutorials, opinions - Usually requested internally - Heavily prefer use of JFrog products - GitHub Actions tutorial
22. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Booth Duty - Champions for core products - Answer product questions - Explain how we fit with existing workflows - Solve customer problems - Schmoozing after the conference - Exhausting
23. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved
24. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved Workdays - Check email, Twitter, Slack - Community manager sends curated suggestions - Write proposals for upcoming CFP deadlines - Code for demos - Probably working from home
25. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved You should try this - Relatively new role - Industry is booming - Flexible role - Soft skills, grit, and drive to learn - Bootcamp grads should consider it
26. @jfrog | Copyright © 2019 JFrog. All Rights Reserved QUESTIONS? Twitter: @dixie3flatline