Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m Matt and I’m a .Net / C# developer advocate for Vonage. I’ve only been an advocate for a couple of months, but so far I’m loving it.

I started my professional life in a support role and as a network administrator. After a while, I got bored of turning computers off and on again and taught myself to program with the aid of Google and StackOverflow. Over the last 15 years since then, I have become a developer and have learned so much and I have discovered that passing on my knowledge and helping people learn was something I enjoyed. Since discovering that advocacy was a real job, this is all I’ve wanted to do.

What do you feel is the most important part of your job?

Connecting with people and building relationships is the most important thing for me about this role and it’s the human aspect that attracted me to advocacy. I see myself as the conduit between developers who consume our services and the teams on the inside, building those relationships is mutually beneficial and provides our customers with a better experience overall.

What is something you’re struggling with?

I’m sure everyone feels the same at the moment; I’m struggling with not going to meet-ups and conferences in person. I think video conferences served a purpose, but it’s easy to miss so much by not being there with someone. The body language, having a chat while waiting in line for something, sharing a beer and fixing all that’s wrong with the world, and generally being with people. I miss them all and am so looking forward to what next year will bring.

Tell us about a time you were inspired by someone or something in DevRel.

Without sounding cheesy, all of my teammates here at Vonage inspire whenever we get together to talk about things. A great bunch of people who perfectly embody the spirit of Developer Relations.

What’s one change you’d like to see in DevRel?

As I’m very new to the DevRel side of things I don’t currently have anything that I’d like to change. I’m sure that’ll change with time, but right now I’m just enjoying discovering how to be the best developer advocate I can be.