What Do You Do Again? with a Developer Evangelist
What Do You Do Again is a blog series focused on sharing job functions that aren’t always at top of mind, yet are viable options for successful careers. In each interview, we focus on what lead each person to their current role and how they could’ve gotten there sooner. The hope is to create more guidance around such big decisions that young adults have to make early in their lives.
This is an interview with Nathaniel Okenwa, a Developer Evangelist based in London, UK. My coworker introduced me to his talk that she saw him share at Adulting.dev: 0 to 100, Real Quick. As someone in the weeds of building onboarding programs, it was refreshing to see his take on starting at a new company explained in a clear and relatable way.
What is your job title?
Developer Evangelist
What does that mean?
My job sits in a branch of the tech industry known as Developer Relations or DevRel for short. My company creates tools for software developers and my job is to make sure that developers know about my company’s products. I also try to create opportunities where developers can try out our products and hopefully love them.
What does your day to day look like?
One of my favourite things about this job is that I don’t do the same things on a day to day basis. Many days I’m out at tech events talking to developers, maybe giving a talk at a conference or live coding a tech demo at a hackathon. Other days I may be writing a blog post or tutorial about one of our products. However, my favourite thing to do is organising community events. I’m fortunate that I have plenty of opportunities to do this with my job.
When did you realize this type of job existed?
When I was attending a university hackathon I saw a Developer Evangelist (now one of my colleagues) stand up on stage and give a 5 minute demo. I was amazed by how this person combined charisma and public speaking with technical know-how to inspire me to create awesome things. I had always enjoyed public speaking and I loved to teach. It was amazing watching this person combine different things I loved into one package. I knew from that day that I wanted to get into Developer Relations.
How did you get into this role?
I started as a community organiser with my university technology society, during this time I became an ambassador for the company that I currently work at. Eventually, a Developer Evangelist role opened up and I applied. It was my dream job at one of my favourite tech companies. Fast forward to today, I’ve been working for almost 5 months now and I have loved every bit of it
I had always enjoyed public speaking and I loved to teach. It was amazing watching this person combine different things I loved into one package.
What did you study in college?
I got my bachelor degree in Business Computing and Entrepreneurship from Goldsmiths, University of London.
What courses prepared you for what you do now?
My computing degree gave me the basic technical foundation to develop my tech skills. However, it was my involvement in the student tech community that really developed the skills that I use in my job. As a part of my university tech society, I participated in and organised many hackathons, workshops and even a conference.
What crossroads of majors does your job fall under?
Computer Science x Marketing x Project Management x Creative Writing
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a doctor. Looking back, I don’t know why. I guess it was because we had quite a few family friends who were doctors and they all seemed to have the nicest cars.
Where do you think Developer Relations will grow?
The tech industry is not going anywhere as the advancement of technology continues to drive growth in industries across the board. Developers are becoming a fundamental part of the way products are made, and Developer Relations will continue to grow as more products are made targeting said developers.
Why is your role important?
If you are a company creating technology you need to make sure that developers know about your products and know how to use it. Having a person who understands what it takes to be a developer makes your marketing efforts much more personal. My job is to be a relatable point of contact for developers and initiate a hopefully long term love relationship between that developer and our products.
Where do you hope to grow next?
I’m still relatively new in my role and I hope to grow and gain more experience, but I’d like to eventually reach a leadership role where I am able to drive the future of Developer Relations.
What Do You Do Again?
I try to convince as many software developers as I can to use my company’s products.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Nathaniel is a Developer Evangelist at Twilio serving the Javascript community in the UK and the rest of Europe. He was previously the President of Hacksmiths, the student tech society at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a die hard fan of JavaScript, sports, superheroes and mixed martial arts. His life goals are to have Batman’s brains, Deadpool’s humour, Shannon Sharpe’s fashion sense, Killmonger’s Wokeness, and Thanos’ determination! You can find him here: Twitter.
Originally published at http://chelsealeenyc.wordpress.com on October 14, 2019.
