Six Weeks at DevRel Uni : My Story and Experience

Developer Relations, or DevRel, has always been a field that caught my eye and sparked my interest. From the very beginning of my career, I wanted to explore this domain at least once. In my journey of learning and training myself to be ready for this role, I got an opportunity that changed my life for good!

On May 14, 2024, I received an email that I had been selected for the fifth cohort of DevRel Uni as a mentee/participant.

My happiness knew no bounds because I was so excited to join the 5th cohort. I had eagerly awaited this since the 4th cohort ended and frequently checked their page for updates. Luckily, I had filled out an interest form, which kept me informed when applications for DevRel Uni were open.

The Exciting Beginning

DevRel Uni was a six-week, power-packed journey filled with knowledge about developer relations. The amazing founder of DevRel Uni, Bianca, welcomed us and gave a quick walkthrough of each session. Her enthusiasm set a positive tone for our learning journey.

Structure of the Cohort

The sessions at DevRel Uni were diverse and insightful. They covered up all the aspects of Developer Relations, which includes crafting stellar documentation, building communities, understanding product, self branding and more!
This was the basic structure of the weekly sessions:

1. Strategic Insights into Developer Relations: A Comprehensive Primer

2. Bootstrapping Developer Relations from Scratch

3. Getting 1M Views on a YouTube Video｜Patrick’s DevRel Rant

4. Accelerating dApp Development — Speedrunning Ethereum

5. Content, Personal Branding, and Social Media

6. Documentation Strategy

We were guided by leading DevRel pros from the industry over the six sessions, covering a variety of topics essential for DevRel. These sessions were led by incredible mentors like Patrick Collins, Nader Dabit, Austin Griffith, Steph Orpilla, Michiel Mulders, and Bianca Buezea.

Highlights of DevRel Uni Cohort 5

• Powerpacked learning sessions by Expert Instructors: The best thing about DevRel Uni is that they always focus on providing premium DevRel education. We were provided expert led sessions where we actually understood the importance of Developer Relations in an organization, the main KPI and metrics, developer tools, documentation, creating educational content, community engagement, developer ecosystem building activities, collaborating with various teams and so much more!

• Brainstorming and Breakout Sessions: We had brainstorming sessions where we could form teams, discuss ideas, and work on assignments together. This collaborative approach enhanced our learning experience. Also, I had a chance to explore the creative work done by fellow mentees, which also helped me understand a diverse POV around Developer relations.

• Regular Updates and Resources: We received updates, assignments, session PPTs, and resources via email (and the speed of delivery has been lightening fast! all credit goes to our mentors and amazing founder who always made sure that our learning should never stop). This ensured we were well-prepared and had all the materials we needed for study, assignments and other purpose.

• Active Community on Telegram and Discord: We had a common Telegram group and Discord for discussions, which helped us network, share our learnings, and get feedback from our peers. I feel that this is a small community of devrel enthusiast who initiative very meaningful conversations, share valuable insights and spread positivity in the cohort 5 circle<3

How DevRel Uni Helped Me

Now, this is something which im extreeeemely proud of! Here are a few achievements (small yet significant) which I witnessed in my journey along with DevRel Uni.

• #14DaysOfDevRel Challenge: This social media challenge pushed me to consistently share my learnings and experiences and somehow enhanced my online presence.

  I also realized the importance of staying consistent, a few days were challenging for me due to excessive work load and academic commitments. Implementing feedbacks, doing the research work and writing lengthy blogs is time taking, hence, I had to shift to posting threads on X/Twitter sooner in order to save time!

• Weekly Learning Sessions: Each session with DevRel pros was a treasure trove of insights and practical knowledge. If I could have the opportunity to attend those sessions again, I would be always ready to be the first attendee!

• Homework Assignments: These assignments required me to research technical tools and explore various protocols and products, particularly in the Web3 space. All the assignments offered a varied focus and required our creativity to come up! This varied from community building, planning a devrel strategy, ecosystem growth, educating people about developer tools, conducting an interview with a DevRel pro and more!
  Overall, these assignments were challenging but very rewarding (in terms of immense learning experience they had to offer)

• Valuable Networking: Connecting with fellow DevRel Uni students and mentees provided a supportive network of like-minded individuals. I could also get in touch with the mentees from previous cohort and exchange valuable insights.

• Improved Communication and Writing Skills: Presenting ideas to a wider audience and incorporating their feedback helped me refine my skills. I also understood the education space in web3 and this help me improve my content and build a good strategy for active engagement too.

• Practical Application: I actively implement the knowledge and skills I gained from DevRel Uni in my current role. This also lead to recognition and growth opportunities because I could share my past experiences and devrel knowledge with people who are either unaware or curious to know more about this domain!

My #14DaysOfDevRel Challenge

During the cohort, we also took a 14 Days of DevRel challenge where we shared our understanding about Developer Relations and shared various informative blogs/threads related to it. Since I love long form of content, I majorly dedicated my time to write lengthy and quality blogs so that any beginner or a DevRel enthusiast can easily understand them and get their answers!
Here's a detailed overview of the activity I did :

Final Thanks

A huge shoutout to all the mentors. Every resource and piece of information they shared was priceless.
Special appreciation goes to Bianca, who has significantly impacted the DevRel and education space by producing quality DevRels through her cohorts over the past five seasons. She is incredibly helpful, humble, and a source of immense knowledge. I deeply admire her as a fellow woman in tech and DevRel enthusiast.
Much love and more power to her!

Looking to Transition to a DevRel Role?

If you're considering transitioning to a DevRel role and want to get educated about it, DevRel Uni is the best place you can ever have! Fill out this interest form and get notified when the 6th cohort launches!

My experience with DevRel Uni was transformative, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to grow in this field.