Cracking the DevRel Interview at Google

I am currently leading the DevRel hiring for Google India. After interacting with DevRel leaders from across the globe who happen to be my Hiring Managers, I feel like I can offer some general tips on how to do well in DevRel interviews. Of course, standard caveats apply. I’ve only done DevRel hiring at Google and only know Google’s hiring process inside and out. But, I believe the tips below are general enough to apply to many other companies as well.

Know What Job You Are Interviewing For

Developer Relations is an umbrella term that covers a lot of different job titles and roles. Also, the field is still new enough that not everyone agrees on what titles, like “Developer Advocate” or “Community Manager,” actually mean. Because of this, you need to do some research before your interview.

Ask the recruiter what they know about the job. What is the title? What are the core job responsibilities? Does this job report up through marketing or engineering or other? Find out as much as you can about the job because if the interviewers are any good, the questions they ask will be tailored to the day-to-day work in the role.

Usually, teams that report up through engineering are more likely to ask technical questions than jobs on the marketing team. But that isn’t always true. Your recruiter should let you know if technical questions are part of the process. If they don’t proactively tell you, it is okay to ask. The expectations for coding and technical questions vary a lot between jobs, too. At Google, we have a high coding bar for Developer Relations Engineering roles (DA and DPE). We often ask traditional software engineering interview questions, but we may weigh the readability and clarity of the code slightly higher than a software engineering interview would.

Tailor Your Message to Your Audience

One of the most critical skills in all Developer Relations roles is knowing how to change your message based on your audience. “Failure to adapt their message to the audience” is a common reason panels recommend “No Hire” for a candidate. Developer Relations roles work with a variety of audiences, from students to executives, and each audience has unique needs. Developer Relations teams must be confident that you will give presentations and explanations that are appropriate to the audience in front of you.

There are two main things to keep in mind to ace this part of the interview. First of all, talk to your interviewers the same way you’d speak to potential customers. That means don’t say racist or sexist things. I really shouldn’t have to include this, but I’ve learned this isn’t as obvious as I would like it to be.

Related to this, don’t talk down to your interviewer, even if you are smarter than they are. Good DevRelers can explain technical things without making the listener feel dumb. If a candidate can’t do that during the interview, interviewers most likely won’t recommend hiring them. Use polite, respectful language. If you disagree with the interviewer, do so carefully and be prepared to explain your reasoning and back your assertions with data. Part of a DA’s job is to get folks to consider new ideas and approaches, but you have to do it without pissing people off.

The other thing to keep in mind is the background of your audience. Interviewers ask most candidates a question of the form “explain [technical concept] to [specific audience].” For example, “explain containers to the CEO of a small consultancy.” or “explain Python list comprehensions to a physicist.” Good candidates start their answers by clarifying the background that the audience has. They might ask if the CEO understands VMs or whether the physicist knows Python. Excellent candidates ask for more information and then repeat back what they heard to verify they fully understand the problem before answering. This doesn’t have to be awkward or take a long time, by the way. A candidate can simply say, “since the CEO has experience with VMs, I’ll start by…” And if you give a presentation as part of your interview process, you need to be able to clearly state the intended audience of that presentation, including the background they had with the topic.

Communicate Clearly

Developer Relations is all about communication. Even jobs that seem very technical on the surface, like SDK development, require that you communicate how to use your product through your code. Because of this, communication skills are weighted heavily in all Developer Relations interviews. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your English (or another language) needs to be perfect. But it does mean that you must be able to make yourself understood and that you can understand others.

Most general interviewing tips can help with improving your communication skills, but there are a few things to keep in mind specific to DevRel. First, try not to use jargon. Every company has internal jargon, but not everyone is aware of what is internal jargon and what is a standard industry term. You can practice communicating with folks from outside your company by going to meetups or participating in online communities and open source projects. This is especially important if you haven’t had a lot of jobs or have been at the same one for a while.

You can also check with your interviewer occasionally to ensure they understand what you are saying. And I recommend using CS terminology and being extra precise with your language.

Also, any code you write or submit as part of a portfolio needs to be clear. I usually tell my candidates “in Developer Relations, we teach through code.” Your code should be idiomatic. That means Python should be Pythonic. Ruby shouldn’t look like C. Use the data structures and libraries built into your language where appropriate unless you are told to do otherwise. Variable names and function names should be long enough to be descriptive in most languages.

Other Tips

I could keep going, but most of my other advice is just standard technical interview advice. There are tons of books and sites available on general interview skills. A number of questions asked are common interview questions given a bit of technical flavor.

If you are nervous about coding questions, the best advice I have is to practice coding. Don’t spend hours memorizing since good interviewers won’t use questions that are directly from books or websites. For practice, pick up problems that can be completed in less than two hours and don’t have any competitive aspect. If you practice enough, you’ll notice that many interview questions are variations on a couple themes like text parsing, counting, trees, etc.

In a nutshell, I would say,

• A big component of Developer Relations roles is the ability to communicate technical concepts in easy to understand ways, including through code.
• Be sure not to overlook questions like: Why Google? Why are you interested in this role? Why Developer Relations? What is your understanding of the DevRel role?
• The team builds libraries and samples for developers. Be prepared to talk about developer products you have used and to analyze the experience you had in using those products.
• Be prepared to explain concepts, eg. cloud storage to a layman vs. an expert OR explain how a search engine works to a 10 year old.
• Come up with and be able to discuss examples of your favorite or least favorite API's, documentation, etc. What made them stand out? What impact does poor documentation have on developers? 
• Be ready to talk about complex projects you have worked on from beginning to end. What did you learn? What were some obstacles you faced and how did you overcome them? How would you quantify your impact? 
• Keep the developers in mind in all your answers - the users, care for the user, how can you make sure they have an amazing experience using our products?

If you have specific questions, let me know in the comments or reach out to me individually. Will be more than happy to have an interaction.