I couldn't agree more, and I've been thinking about one specific aspect that makes it harder than most other roles I've had previously.

Context switching. https://twitter.com/saltnburnem/status/1348734142121455617?s=20

Before we get into the nitty gritty I want to express that context switching is part of just about everyone's job and I'm not talking about having to stop coding to jump in a meeting and then get back in the groove of writing more code.

I will also state that this doesn't apply to all devrel and is dependent on the make up and responsibilities of a given devrel team or individual. This is however, what I have experienced and heard from multiple other dev advocates as well.

Okay, now let's get into it. As I mentioned in the beginning I find context switching to be one of the most challenging aspects of my job. Again, not because I'm jumping in and out of meetings, but more because of the many hats I have to wear day-to-day.

On any given day I find myself taking on the responsibilities of a community manager, technical writer, teacher, developer, public speaker, designer, video editor, podcaster, marketer, user advocate, etc.

On top of that, I may have to switch between these different roles within the same day. This prevents me from being able to get into a flow and really digging into one of these areas, because there is always something else around the corner that will need to be done.

Part of this is time management, but the reality of the situation is that you will most likely need to take on many of these roles and sometimes in order to capitalize on opportunities you will need to switch roles quickly.

An example might be discovering a conference you want to sponsor because it would be a great opportunity to raise some awareness. This could lead to the following:

- need assets for the event
- need to prepare a talk / find speaker
- need to prepare a workshop
- promotion
- etc

These can sometimes come at you quick and you have to find ways to now work that into your daily workflow where you might also be:

- making demo apps
- producing live streams or podcasts
- writing content
- writing docs
- gathering and providing feedback to product
- etc

So you end up having to become really good at context switching. It's a great skill to have, but I have found that it gets really hard to improve in any of these areas because you never get to dig in.

I don't code enough to really grow in that area like if I was doing product or OSS dev work.

I don't write enough to really improve my writing.

I don't do enough talks to really improve my public speaking.

Etc.

I definitely am improving in these areas, but it's pretty slow when compared to what I would accomplish in the same time when focused on something like writing product code every day.

I'm curious to hear if there are a lot of other devrel folks out there who have experienced this.