Latest / The Career Change Podcast with Fexingo: Switching Fields, Bootcamps, and Reskilling / Bootcamp Grads Transitioning Into Developer Relations
Transcript
- Lucas: So today I want to talk about a role that a lot of bootcamp grads I've talked to have heard of but don't really understand — developer relations. Sometimes called DevRel, sometimes developer advocacy. It's been growing quietly for the last five or six years, and I think it's a genuinely good fit for the skill set you pick up in a bootcamp. Luna: I've seen job titles like 'developer advocate' or 'community engineer.' But what do they actually do all day? Lucas: It's essentially the bridge between a company's engineering team and its external developer community. You write blog posts, record tutorials, answer questions on forums, speak at conferences, give feedback to the product team on what developers are struggling with. You're not selling in the traditional sense; you're helping developers succeed with the company's tools or platform. Luna: So it's part technical writing, part community management, part teaching. Lucas: Exactly. And here's why it's relevant for bootcamp grads: you've just spent three to six months learning how to learn technical concepts quickly and explain them to yourself. That's the core skill in DevRel — being able to take something complex and make it accessible. Plus, you're probably closer to the beginner perspective than someone who's been coding for ten years. Luna: That's a good point. A senior engineer might assume too much context. A bootcamp grad knows exactly where the pain points are. Lucas: Right. And DevRel doesn't require you to be the strongest coder on the team. You need to be proficient — you need to write sample apps, debug examples, understand the API — but you're not shipping production features. Your output is content and relationships. Luna: What about the salary range? I've seen numbers all over the place. Lucas: It's surprisingly good. According to the 2025 State of DevRel report, the median base salary for a mid-level developer advocate in the US is around one hundred and forty thousand dollars. Entry-level roles — often called associate developer advocate or developer relations engineer — start around ninety to one hundred thousand. That's comparable to a mid-level software engineer. Luna: So the pay is solid. But how do you break in without a traditional computer science degree and without years of industry experience? Lucas: Let me give you a concrete example. I spoke with a bootcamp grad named Priya — she finished a full-stack program in 2024 and was struggling to get hired as a junior developer. She'd been a high school math teacher before the bootcamp. Instead of applying only to engineering roles, she started a blog where she wrote tutorials about the tools she was learning — React, Node.js, deployment on AWS. Luna: So she built her own portfolio of teaching material. Lucas: Exactly. She also joined a couple of open source projects and focused on improving their documentation — writing setup guides, clarifying ambiguous error messages. Then she applied to a developer relations role at a cloud infrastructure startup. She used her blog posts and documentation contributions as her portfolio. She got the job. Luna: Did she need a traditional engineering background? I feel like some DevRel job descriptions ask for five years of software development experience. Lucas: Those descriptions are often wish lists. The reality is that many DevRel teams care more about communication skills, empathy, and the ability to build community than years of coding experience. A study by the DevRel Collective found that only about forty percent of professional developer advocates have a computer science degree. The rest come from backgrounds like teaching, technical writing, design, or bootcamps. Luna: So the door is open. But what should a bootcamp grad do in the six months before applying to start building a DevRel portfolio? Lucas: Three things. First, start a technical blog or a YouTube channel focused on one tool or platform you're learning. It doesn't have to be huge — ten posts or five videos is enough to show you can explain things. Second, contribute to open source documentation. Most projects have a 'good first issue' label for documentation. It's lower pressure than code fixes. Luna: And the third thing? Lucas: Start going to meetups — virtual or in-person. Not just attending, but volunteering to help organize or eventually speak. Many DevRel roles are filled through community connections. If you're the person who gives a five-minute lightning talk at a local meetup about how you deployed your first app, people remember that. Luna: I like that it leverages the teaching muscle. Bootcamp grads spend weeks pair programming and explaining concepts to each other. That's literally DevRel training. Lucas: It really is. And one thing that often surprises people: DevRel roles can be remote-friendly. According to the same State of DevRel report, over sixty percent of developer advocates work fully remote. So geography isn't a barrier. Luna: That's huge for bootcamp grads who might not live in tech hubs. Lucas: Right. Now, there are different flavors of DevRel. Some companies have developer advocates focused on content creation, others on community management, others on product feedback. A bootcamp grad might start in a more community-focused role and then grow into the content side. Luna: Let's talk about the downsides. What's the hardest part of DevRel for someone coming from a bootcamp? Lucas: Imposter syndrome can be real — you're talking to experienced developers who might know more about the product than you do. But the trick is to own your role as a translator, not a guru. You're not there to be the smartest person in the room; you're there to help people get unstuck. Priya told me she framed her background as an advantage: 'I'm closer to the beginner's mindset, so I can anticipate confusion.' Luna: That's a reframe I think a lot of people need to hear. Lucas: Another challenge is that DevRel can be hard to measure. Companies don't always know how to evaluate it — is it blog traffic, conference talks, support tickets closed? You have to be comfortable with ambiguous metrics and advocate for your own impact. Luna: That's the part that might scare some bootcamp grads who want more structure. Lucas: It's a fair concern. But if you're someone who enjoys variety — writing one day, coding a demo the next, answering questions on Discord the next — it can be a great fit. And the career path is real: senior developer advocate, lead of DevRel, director of community. Luna: I'm thinking about our listeners who are mid-career changers. A lot of them come from teaching or customer-facing roles. DevRel seems like a natural landing spot. Lucas: Absolutely. If you've been a teacher, a trainer, a technical support person, or even a sales engineer, you already have core DevRel skills. The bootcamp gives you the technical vocabulary and the ability to write a simple app. The combination is powerful. Luna: We've been talking about developer relations as a career path for bootcamp grads, and honestly, this show exists because of listeners like you who are thinking through these moves. If we've helped you think about a career change or given you a useful framework, consider supporting the show. A couple of dollars a month genuinely keeps these episodes ad-free and independent. You can do that at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that makes a real difference for us. Lucas: Yeah, we really appreciate that. And it helps us keep diving into niches like DevRel that don't get covered everywhere. Lucas: So to wrap up the practical side: if you're a bootcamp grad interested in DevRel, start blogging this week, find an open source project with good first documentation issues, and attend a meetup. The path is there — it's just less traveled. Luna: And if you already work in DevRel and came from a bootcamp, we'd love to hear your story. Drop us a note. Lucas: Next episode, we're going to look at another non-traditional tech role that bootcamp grads can target: solutions engineering. It's closer to sales, but technical. Should be a good one.