Developer Advocate Amotivational Syndrome

Steven PoustyOpenShift/Red Hat@TheSteve0 on Twitter, IRC, SmugMug, Github,Ingress, Instagram, and Skype

http://bit.ly/amotivation

What is it

BURNOUT

DEPRESSION

Not Covering

● All The Reasons People Leave a Dev Rel job○ Could be you don’t like the job○ Could be you need to make more money

● All the things that can suck the joy out of life● Some of the reasons that seemed only due to particular issues in

my life

Assumptions

You care A LOT about your product(s)

You care A LOT about your users

You have a strong personality - different from an extrovert.

You like having friends and a life outside work

You are mortal

Causes

ExamplesMarketing trying to force traditional (or dumb) marketing on developers

Engineers or Management, with no real user experience, making design decisions without feedback or testing

Same group if they don’t actually “dog food” the product

WHY:You care about your product

You are about being honest with your users

Apply Liberally

ExamplesDoing a road show along with your normal travel schedule for 2.5 months

Travel to 3 week long shows in a month and a half

Travel so much you can’t remember which of the last 3 places you parked your car is the one that applies to this trip

WHY:Because it is exhausting

Because you like friends and having a life

ExamplesOne big one for me

Job that saw Dev Advocates as support and doc people - no CFP or travel for 4 months and none on the horizon

See us as the people who will write all the documentation

WHY:You didn’t apply for those positions

You want to get out and help your users

This is differentAs a Dev Advocate you are bridge - you are particularly sensitive to team problems

ExampleTeams can’t communicate or agree on who is in charge

A lot of bad blood between members of the same team = a lot of politics

Too many chefs

WHY:You want to do your job well

If you wanted politics you would be in management

ExampleNot having any product

Not doing mostly dev advocate work

WHY:Ummmm because you want to do your job

You are passionate and if not directed that energy goes to bad places

Fixes

Get a Therapist

Pay Attention

Say NoMostly to yourself

Take a Break

Calm The Fuck Down

Switch HatsFor a little while

Stop Caring

Leave

Developer Advocate Amotivational Syndrome

Steven PoustyOpenShift/Red Hat@TheSteve0 on Twitter, IRC, SmugMug, Github,Ingress, Instagram, and Skype

http://bit.ly/amotivation