Dillion Megida is a Software Engineer, Content Creator, and Developer Advocate at Adyen. I call him a serial creator because he creates content across major platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X(Twitter), and Linkedin. He is simplifying web technologies one video at a time.
Fun fact: He has written over 300 technical articles and this is before he stopped counting!
In this conversation, Dillion shared many nuggets about content creation and how he balances his full-time job with his passion for creating content.
Can you share a brief overview of your journey as a developer advocate?
I’ve worked as an external developer advocate which is the traditional developer advocacy and as an internal developer advocate.
In my previous role at Stream, I was an external developer advocate and my role involved making our frontend SDKs easy for developers to use. I made video tutorials and also wrote articles on how to use our SDK. My role involved two major things: The content part and the community part where I answered questions relating to our product on Stackoverflow. I also got feedback from our users, know what they’re struggling with, and then shared it with our engineers for improvement just to create a very good user experience.
What does your current role as an Internal Developer Advocate entail?
I currently work as an internal developer advocate at Adyen. Internal Developer Advocacy is not what you’ll see or hear a lot of time. There are a few resources on it and from the little I was able to get, It is still like the traditional developer advocacy we all know, only in this case, you’re advocating for a product internally. For example, at Adyen, we have engineers who build products and also engineers who use those products to build other things. So my role is to be the bridge between both teams.
At Adyen, we have the platform engineers who build tools used in the company and then we have the engineers (I’ll call them implementation engineers) who use these tools to build products for our users.
Why did you decide to get into DevRel?
For me, it started as content. I started creating content even before my first frontend developer role, I was writing articles and I enjoy teaching a lot. Currently, all my content including YouTube and articles is somewhere around 700+ and this is exclusive of my TikTok videos. My written contents were about 300+ before I stopped counting.
So I wrote my first technical article in June 2019 and then I started making videos before I focused fully on making videos.
I wanted a role where I could write technical articles, make video tutorials, and also write code because I never wanted to stop being an engineer. So finding out developer advocacy allows me to do these things made me consider it as a career.
How do you come up with ideas for your content?
I have this notion board where I drop ideas whenever I discover them. Currently, I have 100 ideas I haven't yet done, and these are the ones I remembered to write and I'm not very consistent.
Coming up with ideas for me is super simple, I get ideas from whatever it is that is happening in my everyday life. I could be on Twitter and I see a random post asking javascript questions, that’s an Idea for me and I’ll make a video about it because there are other people with questions like that.
When people ask me questions personally, I also make videos about it so when next I get that type of question, It’s easy to send them an existing video and if they have more questions after that, I can always answer.
I also watch videos of amazing creators like Brad Traversy, Web Dev Simplified, and Kelvin Powell (The Master of CSS). If I learn anything interesting, I want to also make a video about it and share it because I’m teaching about it from my perspective and this is not to say I’m a better teacher. I believe everyone teaches in a certain way and we also have our different audiences.
I don't let the fact that there are already many videos on a topic stop me. I believe my video might be the first one someone discovers, even if similar content exists. Someone else may have seen the other video but might prefer my video because I have a different perspective or style.
The fact that someone did something does not hold me back from sharing my content because I believe that everyone has something unique to share,
How do you balance your official duties at work and content creation?
This is all about my motivations. I love to make videos and also want to be able to generate income from it and that requires consistency. I’ve also learned to manage my time and understand what is impossible. There was a time when I was making three videos every day and my platforms were growing and as time went on I realized it wasn’t scalable.
My company also prioritizes a healthy work-life balance, this way I have enough time after work to work on ideas I have. So for every opportunity I get, I’m either researching, building demos, or recording a video.
How are you able to create content serially on multiple platforms yet you’ve been consistent?
Again, I’ll say it’s all about the motivation and I use several platforms because I don’t know where people may discover my videos. It could be YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or LinkedIn. The idea behind the multiple platforms is to be able to serve different audiences.
Focusing on one platform will allow me to grow faster but using multiple platforms, the growth may be slow but I’m able to reach different people
Before now, I made different videos for different platforms because of the time limits that each platform allows, now I can’t do that anymore because I’m trying to manage my time and also trying to stay consistent. So I post the same videos across all platforms except YouTube.
Did content creation help you stand out when applying for jobs?
For developer advocacy, Yes, it did for me, but it's also important to note that this is because I was getting into a role that involved content. If I was getting into a developer advocacy role or a DevRel role in general that involved something else, then maybe my content would not have been a priority for the company.
I think my content helped a lot because even before I started applying for DevRel roles, I would get rejections with feedback that commended my articles and videos but for some reasons best known to them, I wasn’t selected for the role.
What skills do you think anyone looking to get into developer advocacy should have?
This depends on the part of DevRel that you’re interested in. If you’re interested in the community part then you have to build your community management skills. You can also volunteer to get experience and this will help you a lot.
For developer advocacy, people have different opinions but ideally a developer advocate should be a developer themselves because how do you relate to a developer if you're not a developer yourself?
It wouldn't make much sense if a developer that uses your product is struggling with a tool and then you have to reach out to the engineers in your company for solutions all the time.
Do you think developer advocates should know how to code?
I think it's very important that developer advocates know how to code and when people say things like Developer advocate don't write code to me, it also looks like when people say the only thing UI UX designers do is color buttons. Some people also say developer advocates just fly around and visit different countries but then they’re going to these places to teach, educate, and build communities in different locations. So as a developer advocate, you should be able to write code because that helps how you can relate with other engineers.
For people who want to start creating content, what advice or tips would you want to share with them?
Do not wait for some things before you start because you might be waiting forever. Don’t let certain excuses hold you back. It’s easy to say you want a proper microphone, camera, or even laptop before starting, even though these may be very strong reasons, you should start with what you have.
For video creation, sit in front of your window to get natural lighting during the day, and use your laptop audio to get the job done. Most people will find value in your content even with the way it is.
For technical writing, you can use free platforms like Hashnode, Dev.to, and Medium to start writing articles. You don’t have to build your blog from scratch before you start writing.
Start with what you have and as time goes on you can gradually upgrade when there are need for certain things.
What is the one thing you wish you had known when you were starting your career as a developer advocate and also a content creator?
I’d say when I started, I was so excited about the pros of DevRel so much that I wasn’t focused on the cons and this is beacuse not a lot of people were talking about the cons of DevRel at that time. All the recent layoffs have sort of magnified the cons of DevRel that people do not talk about.
So before this layoff season, I was super hyped out about DevRel. But now I'm not as hyped out anymore and this is because:
A lot of companies do not know why they need a DevRel team or a developer advocate. They just hire because other companies are doing it and for such companies, if there’s a layoff, they can easily dissolve the DevRel team because there was no need for it in the first place.
When companies don’t know why they need a DevRel team, it’s difficult for them to set clear goals and this makes it super hard for the developer advocate to track their progress.
Sometimes, a lot of people prefer to confide with engineers in a company rather than the developer advocate because they assume that they are not technical enough.
For content creation, I wish I had started earlier and I would have been bigger than I am now. I’ve also learned to accept that there are people that will say nasty things about my videos and I see it as a part of my journey instead of letting it get to me.
Any parting words?
I’d say for anyone coming into content creation, focus less on the numbers and more on the value you’re offering. The value that somebody doesn’t see today they’ll probably see it tomorrow. And if you’re interested in DevRel, know what you’re coming in for, do research, and ask questions to help you prepare for the role.
DevRel is a very interesting field but I’d say learn a lot about the cons before you dive in because people only talk about the pros. If you’re considering DevRel because of the shiny things like flying around the world, it may never happen because your company’s need for a developer advocate may not involve that.
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