Looking Back on 2025: A Retrospective
From the beginning, the focus of this blog has been technical, very rarely organizational. I broke this unwritten rule once in 2015. I began writing retrospectives in 2023, on the year that had passed. Let's continue the tradition, but with a wider scope than before. The situation warrants it.
More Chaos
It's a hard realization to admit, but the world is spiraling deeper and deeper into chaos. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has now dragged into its third year, and still, neither the European Union nor NATO has mustered the resolve to intervene militarily. Every day brings fresh reports of Russian war crimes, met only with our silent complicity. The strongest response we seem capable of is to "strongly condemn."
\ What stings most is the betrayal by the United States, an ally whose reliability is increasingly coming into question. As a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum, America was bound to uphold Ukraine's sovereignty. Under President Biden, support has been cautious at best. Now, they are pressuring Ukraine to cede its own land, a demand that flies in the face of Ukraine's constitution. The reasons for this abandonment remain unclear, but the consequences are far-reaching.
\ History offers a grim parallel: the Roman Empire once maintained order across the Mediterranean and beyond. While we can't know the daily lives of its citizens, those within its borders enjoyed relative peace: the Pax Romana. When Rome fell, so too did stability, plunging the world into ever-increasing chaos and bloodshed. The parallel with the current "Pax Americana" is too evident to deny; only the consequences are far more global. Check the Uppsala Conflict Data Program for the backing data.
\ Worse, just yesterday, the USA kidnapped the President of Venezuela, without Congress's approval. It opens the way to more and more rash actions from state or para-state actors: China attacking Taiwan might very well be next, with severe consequences all over the globe.
The State of DevRel
The DevRel state is intrinsically bound to the world state.
\ I started working as a Developer Advocate in 2018 after 17 years of engineering. I wanted to spend more time producing content and talking at conferences, which I did. I had lots of fun, but I got fired in 2024. It took me a couple of months to find another job, but I got fired again in 2025.
\ DevRel is an important discipline, but it comes with a couple of issues:
- It is a long-term investment. You're basically planting seeds, with the hope that some of them might grow and give you a worthwhile return on investment. Even then, you don't know when it will yield them. Perhaps a developer who attended your talk at a small local meetup two years ago has since become a decision-maker and wants to purchase the product you promoted; most probably not.
- In a related manner, while it's easy to prove one's output, it's impossible to prove one's outcome. In other words, I can show that I talked at X number of events this year, or that I wrote one blog post each week. However, it's impossible to claim that I managed to increase the company's revenue. It boils down to your manager trusting you to do the right things.
\ When the economy is shrinking, the closer your job is to the end of the funnel, the safer your position is. DevRel sits at the beginning of the sales funnel. For this reason, I decided to return to engineering.
Good Things
Regardless of the bleak context, I still have a couple of personal wins this year.
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When I made a sideways career step to work in DevRel, Developer Advocate was a growing market. It was easy to move there as an engineer, even if you weren't technical at all. I thought returning to engineering would be challenging given the current state of the market. I actually found a new position in a few months. While the decision to leave DevRel was hard, I consider myself lucky. I'm now happily working for a banking solutions editor.
\ Along with friends and family, a good job is a stable anchor in your life.
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I went to Australia, and I came back: it was amazing! My last blog post of 2025 was all about it.
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My good friend Richard Fichtner recommended that I become an Oracle Ace, and it became true.
Thanks, Richard!
Conclusion
On a personal level, I feel confident enough: I have built some marketable skills over the years. On a global level, though, I'm very worried about the next decade. My advice to you is: never stop learning and be very agile. Take care.
Originally published at A Java Geek on January 4th, 2025
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