Story of Blockchain developer who started as an Intern Role turned to be a Lead DevRel
As part of the Web3Bridge Cohort VI, of learning blockchain development. We got a chance to attend a personality chat with Robert Kruszynski, who is a Lead DevRel at Blockdaemon. He shared his journey on how he got into tech, his interest in blockchain development, and the times he looked for opportunities on how to get into the blockchain space, up to the place where he is now, plus a number of advice for budding blockchain developers or DevRel enthusiasts. Here it is:
Robert didn't have a tech background; he used to work in the hospitality industry but always had an interest in tech. Around 2014, he came across Bitcoin. Later in 2015, he started researching it and learned more about blockchain, and that it allows P2P transactions.
His interest grew and he decided to join a coding school where he learned Frontend, i.e, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. He wanted to learn frontend development in the blockchain.
"Signing up to code means signing up to learn forever. It's more like how Javascript ES6 shifted from let and var to Const and the more you revisit your old projects you realize your growth in Tech" Robert Kruszynski.
After that, he got an internship at a company that mainly used WordPress. The experience was good, though he didn't like it much since he was more into the blockchain. He was bullish about blockchain, and he signed up for any opportunity online looking by looking for internship positions as he wanted to get his feet into the blockchain ecosystem.
He was interested in Consensys, but it was hard to get an opportunity there. He got a frontend and design role at a blockchain company as an intern. He was willing to learn and try hard to learn how to do it, despite not knowing, but getting a chance to learn and grow was important.
His mentor, Billy Marky, was in a team called Rapid and trying to figure out what consumers need in the Ethereum ecosystem and was close with Consensys’ CEO. They hired him as a UX designer. He worked with Billy as a coordinator as he understood managing developers, i.e, developer relations and development of projects from scratch.
From that time, he started getting interested in solidity. He joined Consensys Academy, which is within Consensys, and it teaches Solidity from scratch to end graduates to write smart contracts, certificates, and look for jobs as blockchain developers. After Consensys, he started his Developer Relations role within Consensys. At that time, most people were leaving Rapid, and he was working with his mentor Tommy, who is currently at Infura. Their team was made up of cool random people.
He stayed at Consensys for two years. At some point, he was a Solidity code instructor at the academy. He also helped with coordinating work and people who are interested in solidity, Ethereum, and took part in the ambassadorial program.
Blockdaemon
He was interested in Node management, and he started doing a lot of research. He was bullish about Ethereum and also believed in cross-chain technology. At that time, he discovered Blockdaemon, where he is currently working as the lead of developer relations.
Blockdaemon is a quick way to connect blockchain, stake, scale, and deploy Nodes through institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure. Blockdaemon currently supports over 40 cutting-edge blockchain networks with world-class enterprise infrastructure. They power the blockchain economy with an easy-to-use, secure, and scalable node management platform. For developers to build a dApp using Blockdaemon, they have to consume their API.
Here are some Blockdaemon tutorials & resources for developers interested in exploring it more:-
Opportunities in Blockchain development
Developer Evangelist role
Developer evangelists get to work closely with developers and engineers.
It's a technical role that involves creating documentation and giving developers in the real world to make use of it and give feedback.
Communicates the value of projects to non-technical staff and external stakeholders. DevRel Developer relations are closer to the community, collecting feedback on Discord, Telegram, Twitter, YouTube, among other networks. They are at least familiar with the basics of coding.
The blockchain space is always looking for talent: developers
As a developer or someone who is still learning blockchain development:
Find an avenue that is really for you in the blockchain space and dive into it.
If you're interested in DevRel, you can use developer skills as a way to get into the blockchain space, then divert into DevRel.
DevRel role involves:
ability to speak to developers, sales team, designers, and everyone in public
Write documentation and come up with tutorials
Apart from technical skills, you'll need to grow communication and adaptability skills
The greatest challenge as someone interested in blockchain development is finding someone willing to take you in as an intern in the blockchain ecosystem.
At first, he used to apply for junior frontend roles as he thought most would want a more experienced person in blockchain development. In a range of two months, he applied to seventy jobs, and every day, he made tweaks to his resumes and cover letters. He was always happy getting a response, a number of behavioral interviews, and whiteboard interviews.
If you're on the blockchain developer route:
Get used to whiteboard and screen coding, especially in web3, where it's more of explaining code. Practice among yourselves, it's muscle memory.
Talking about your code, even talking aloud, is a good practice.
Have a good GitHub profile that has an overview page, a well-documented ReadMe, pinned projects, a cover letter, and a resume
Understanding data structures and algorithms is helpful, but you don't have to build them from scratch. Having the ability to understand what data structures and algorithms are and how to scaffold an app is important, especially to land opportunities as a smart contract developer.
Technical writing skills are a good path it could be an advantage to land a Developer Evangelist role on the side of creating tech content and coding.
For the frontend, learn React as almost every company uses it also learn TypeScript as it's strict and many companies are using it. For backend, learn solidity, Golang, and Rust as they'll be important in the coming years.
Write smart contracts, write tests beside them, deploy on test-net, create apps, i.e, connect smart contract to a frontend, and integrate with wallets. If you're interested in smart contract auditing, which is more of QA/DevOps and a more technical role as compared to DevRel. It's more of security and requires coding skills, check out Scrabble smart contract auditing, etc.
Blockchain Security & Ethereum Smart Contract Audits- Consensys
What would you do differently if you were to go start all over again?
"Would buy bitcoin when it was $5, but nothing, remembering when I went through Bootcamps, learning how to code was overwhelming. I wouldn't go back to ease things, but challenges are important for growth. Some bad experiences taught him what he didn't like, and I'm about my life results so far. Stay humble, thirsty, and never say no, even if you're not familiar with some things. Say I don't know this, but I'll research more on how to do this. With that, you'll have said no, but they'll trust you. Mastering proper phrasing is key." Robert Kruszynski
I hope you'll like and get inspired by the story of Robert. He's open to talking about blockchain technology and guiding anyone learning Solidity or how to write smart contracts.
Thank you for reading through my article. You can leave some comments or suggestions.
