https://randomnodes.com/ Recent content on Random Nodes Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Sat, 07 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2022-12-13-not-support/ Tue, 13 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2022-12-13-not-support/ tl;dr Assume good intent and respect the user Point to online forums or other existing resources Pass off to official support channels where ever possible Fail fast: Admit that you can’t help someone. Set limits on the amount of effort you’re willing to expend and then stop after that. Gather as much information from the requestor as possible before attempting to find an internal answer, even if it seems like an easy question. https://randomnodes.com/post/2022-06-08-demystifying-goog-devrel/ Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2022-06-08-demystifying-goog-devrel/ Caveats This post is written from my personal experience in Google DevRel for 12 of the last 16 years This post is point-in-time, as are all blog posts. Meaning information in it might be out of date I have not served in all Google Developer Relations teams This post is written because I get a lot of inquiries about Google Developer Relations jobs. I’m hoping to cover the basics here Step Zero: What is Developer Relations My short definition: A team involved in establishing a relationship with a group of technical practitioners external to the organization that created it. https://randomnodes.com/post/2022-06-04-hiring-managers-1/ Sat, 04 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2022-06-04-hiring-managers-1/ Why I’m Writing This My current role is leading a team in Internal Developer Relations at Google. My team is in a big growth period, and I’ve been focused a lot on hiring. Over the last few months I’ve spent 2-3 hours a day focused on hiring. For the moment that is slowing down. But when you’re running a team like mine, you’re always on the lookout for people to hire. https://randomnodes.com/post/2022-01-24-you-dont-want-me/ Mon, 24 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2022-01-24-you-dont-want-me/ This article is phrased a little flippantly, I don’t mean to be disrespectful. Rather I phrase things strongly this way to emphasize that I really mean what I say. And I include resources to hopefully help those whose next question is “OK, so how do I recruit a DevRel professional and what should I know about them? Thank you to 30 companies that have reached out this year for the inspiration. https://randomnodes.com/about/ Sat, 07 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/about/ You can find me on social media as well Twitter: @manomarks I post a mix of politics and tech Github: @manomarks I used it more publicly when I was at Docker, but now use it mostly for private repos. LinkedIn @manomarks We’ve all got to have one, right? Instagram mano.marks Just photos of travel. Feel free to follow me but please don’t use it to contact me about anything else. https://randomnodes.com/videos/ Sat, 07 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/videos/ https://randomnodes.com/post/2017-01-11-meetings/ Tue, 10 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2017-01-11-meetings/ This is the first in a series of of tips for people in the workplace. I’m writing it mostly because these are things I’ve learned and have to teach people over and over. So really I’m just getting these things out of my head. These tips apply in most tech companies I’ve been around, but the culture in your company or with your boss may vary so your milage may vary. https://randomnodes.com/post/2016-11-14-devrel-primer-2/ Mon, 14 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2016-11-14-devrel-primer-2/ People often ask me, who do you hire for developer relations? So I thought I’d put down a few thoughts on the kinds of roles that you see out there in developer relations. DevRel Specific roles These are roles that primarily do developer relations, whether or not they sit on the DevRel team. Evangelist Evangelism is the oldest title I know of that Developer Relations went by. According to Wikipedia, Mike Murray of Apple Computer originiated the term. https://randomnodes.com/post/2016-11-08-devrel-primer-1/ Tue, 08 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2016-11-08-devrel-primer-1/ I’ve been doing developer relations long enough that I get asked a lot of questions. Particularly by people at companies that don’t have a developer relations program. So I thought I would put down a few thoughts in this series. This is Part One, What is Developer Relations. I’m not going to pretend this is an exhaustive examination of all possibilities, rather more putting down some thoughts. A note on terminology I work for Docker, a company that produces tools used by both developers and operations pros. https://randomnodes.com/post/2016-07-14-why-make-apis/ Thu, 14 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2016-07-14-why-make-apis/ When I first started working in Developer Relations and started giving talks back in 2006 I was working with the Google Maps API. The question I got most often was “Why is Google doing this? Why provide for free an API with all this data.” I’ll get to that in a minute, but it’s a good question. A question a lot of people ask. Or more appropriately should ask. And conversely, a company planning on making a developer tool, (API, SDK, etc. https://randomnodes.com/post/2016-01-08-four-types-developer-content/ Fri, 08 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2016-01-08-four-types-developer-content/ I’ve been working in developer relations for nine years now, doing evangelism and developer education. I’ve tried, read, and watched a bunch of different content. It’s helpful to me to categorize them into four different buckets based on the type of content. And these can be any kind of content, say a blog post, a conference talk, a video, whatever. I’ll use a mix of content here, some that I worked on some that others did. https://randomnodes.com/post/2015-12-03-docker-gui-windows/ Thu, 03 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2015-12-03-docker-gui-windows/ There’s been several posts about running Linux GUI apps on a Mac using Docker, such as Jesse Frazelle’s post. I thought I’d try doing it on Windows. This is so I can remember what I did. I’ve only tested this with Firefox so far. Sound is going to be more complicated. What I had installed: Windows 8.1 Docker Toolbox - You’ll need this to run Docker, obvs Cygwin/X - Cygwin doesn’t come with an X server by default, so you’ll need the Cygwin/X version. https://randomnodes.com/post/2015-10-27-starting-a-new-blog/ Tue, 27 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000 https://randomnodes.com/post/2015-10-27-starting-a-new-blog/ Starting a Docker as the Developer Relations Director, I’ve had a huge amount to learn. I’ve decided to start posting about my learning. This post here is just to figure out using Jekyll and Github Pages to create a blog. Seemed like the most logical way to do it. Let’s see how it goes.