[haswell]

I started my career as a dev, and when given the opportunity I spent a few years in a Dev Evangelist/Advocate role. I loved it, and still remember it fondly - probably the most fun I've ever had at work.

As for opportunities, for me, this became a direct stepping stone to a Product Management role. I also strongly believe I could have shifted back to a dev role if I wanted to. YMMV, and maybe the PM track isn't for you, but I think Evangelist/Advocate roles can be great "generalist" positions that set you up nicely for the next thing, whatever that is.

[ditonal]

I worked as a SWE for 6 years, then DevRel for 2, and it became a huge hassle to get back to plain SWE. This was true even though in DevRel I spent almost all my time coding on demo apps and client libraries. Recruiters just see something other than SWE and assume you forgot how to do real engineering in 6 months and push you towards roles like partner engineering. Ridiculous but true. I eventually got back to SWE but I just wanted to offer a counterpoint that it’s easy to go back because that can vary.

[haswell]

Yeah, this is good to know. I’m a sample size of one.

One other angle is that you might have an easier job shifting back to dev if you’re at a larger company that has decent internal mobility. I feel confident I could shift back here, but it’s fair to expect that at least someone will reject you for that reason.

[mraza007]

Nice !!!! I wonder what its like being a developer advocate for a company and what are some skill this requires

I would love to hear your experience