I was no stranger to Developer Relation when I applied for the cohort, yet the ever-evolving space kept me intrigued to learn form the DevRel professionals who are setting benchmarks for fellow learners.
As soon as I saw the Twitter post announcing "Applications for DevRel Uni Cohort 5 are officially OPEN " I applied immediately.
Eagerly awaiting the acceptance email, it finally arrived just a day before the cohort began. The speaker lineup was incredible, and the excitement was through the roof🚀
tl;dr
DevRel Uni is a six week long cohort for people interested in making a career in Developer Relations aka DevRel. 🥑
Bianca laid a solid foundation and shared strategic insights into Developer Relations starting from her personal story and journey of how she entered and became a Web3 DevRel professional.
Motivating all of us, and guiding us to the next steps.
In this article, I'll share my experience being a part of this year's Cohort and underline the structure of the program.
Without, further ado let's dive in:
Instructors Lineup
Over six sessions, the instructors covered a range of dynamic topics including:
Exploring various roles in DevRel
Crafting a DevRel program from the ground up
Mastering social media to boost your personal brand
Developing top-notch docs for your project
Accelerating prototyping
And, a lot more insider insights!
Session 1: Insights into Developer Relations
By BIANCA BUZEA | Founder DevRel Uni
Session 2: Bootstrapping Developer Relations from Scratch
By STEPH ORPHILLA | DevRel Lead: Nillion
Session 3: Getting 1M Views on a YouTube Video
PATRICK COLLINS Patrick Collins | Co-founder: Cyfrin
Session 4:
Accelerating dApp Development
AUSTIN GRIFFITH @austingriffith | Founder: Buidl Guidl
Session 5:
Content, Personal Branding, and Social Media
NADER DABIT Nader Dabit | Director of DevRel: Eigen Labs
Session 6:
Documentation Strategy
MICHIEL MULDERS | Developer Advocate & Documentation Strategist Hedera
Huge shoutout to all the instructors! 🎉🎉
Cohort Structure:
Every week we had a session paired with a practical assignment, which was the best part. The thrill of spending time thinking, researching, and working on these assignments, and then sharing them with the world, was unparalleled. Getting feedback from fellow DevRels made the experience even more enriching, so much fun!
These assignments provided me with a fresh perspective on how individuals visualize and approach various tasks as DevRels. Each participant brought something unique to the table, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading their work and learning from their insights.
At this point, most of you might be thinking - What were these assignments?
Let me spill the beans:
30-60-90 Day Strategy: We were asked to select an organization we'd like to work with and envision ourselves as their Developer Advocate. Our task was to craft their Q3 strategy.
Wow a Protocol: In this assignment, we went through a quickstart guide of a protocol and prepared a feedback burger. Brownie points for sharing it with the wider community.🎊
Blog: We wrote an article to educate the developer community about one of the features or products of the chosen protocol or company.
Battle of the Blockchains ⚔️: This was a group project where we collaborated with fellow students in the cohort and brainstormed strategies to create a hands-on workshop and come up with innovative ways to promote it to convince devs to show up to our workshop and keep them hooked throughout.
Interview a DevRel Professional: For this task, we interviewed a DevRel professional. During the interview, we learned about their journey, including how they entered the field, their advice for other DevRels or those just starting in DevRel, and any other insights they wished to share or we might be curious about.
Document the DevRel Uni journey: This assignment is the very blog post you're reading right now. 😛
We were also encouraged to develop a writing habit through the #14DaysOfDevRel Challenge, which expanded into writing a guided version on provided topics. This exercise was instrumental in building consistency, and we all somewhere experienced the growth in our content creation skills.
Each class was supplemented with a wealth of articles, additional resources, and links, allowing us to delve deeper into the topics. This approach was fantastic for self-paced learning and expanding our understanding.
I’ve written some great pieces of content sharing my learning and experience as a DevRel. This isn’t me boasting, but rather reflecting on the positive feedback I received from my peers. 🫶🏻
Here are the Top Three Most Talked-About Content Pieces I've Written:
Blueprint for Creating Industry-Standard Documentation
Moving Moment of the Cohort:
For me the highlight of the cohort was Patrick Collins session.
It impacted me the most; coming from a Web2 background with little idea about the Web3 space, his teachings encouraged me to dive into blockchain and Solidity.
The next day, I explored blockchain fundamentals on Cyfrin Updraft and made my first transaction. One thing led to another, and after a week, I completed a Solidity course. 🎉
Later on, built dApps on CryptoZombie and gained confidence in writing Solidity code.
And it is just the beginning...
Also, the amazing people I connected with during the cohort are invaluable. All of them had something to teach through their work and experience. I'll continue to root for all of them and wish them good luck on their journey ahead.
Wrapping Up!
If you're looking to transition into Developer Relations and are not sure where to start, I recommend checking out DevRel Uni program. It will help you understand the industry well, right from the professionals, paired up with additional resources, study materials, and a community to help you become a better version of yourself.
Onwards and upwards!