Episode 131 Wesley Faulkner, Podcast Co-host, Snr Community Manager AWS

On this episode of the podcast Richard speaks to Wesley Faulkner. You may have heard Wesley described as the philosopher of DevRel, and true to his moniker, he brings the deep questions with him to this chat. The nuts and bolts of tech is all very interesting, but equally important to the success of DevRel is the ability to step back and take in the big picture. Wesley has us covered in this department. We get straight into one of the biggest issues DevRel has faced in 2023: layoffs. We’ve talked about it a lot this year, which isn’t surprising considering the almost fifteen per cent cut in DevRel jobs. It’s not something we haven’t been through before, but it still has quite the effect on morale. Wesley discusses this practice of “trimming the fat” that is beloved by CFOs in times of high interest rates. And we can see why. On the surface, it’s simple - sure, you lose a few talented people, but you also lose those pesky salary payments that have been weighing down the budget. But in these situations we must ask ourselves why DevRel is seen as such an easy target. As Richard tells Wesley, he’s often wondered why DevRel must spend so much time justifying its existence, but Marketing and Sales and Customer Service departments don’t have to. According to Wesley, what DevRel needs is to make the PR machine work for us. When the people at the Harvard Business Review, and other publications decide to write about us, others will follow. We can see where he’s coming from. Tech people are like magpies, they like to collect shiny things. Whatever's cool, whatever’s trending. So if there are any celebrity publicists out there looking for a new client, I think DevRel might just need your help. Reach out to Wesley here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley83/ Check out Wesley’s podcast: https://www.justworktogether.com/podcast-season-2/episode-1 Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

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