22. PJ Hagerty and His Journey to DevRel We Belong Here: Lessons from Unconventional Paths to Tech

PJ Hagerty is the founder of Devrelate.io and a board member of Open Sourcing Mental Illness. He’s a developer, writer, speaker, conference organizer, musician, and Community Advocate. He’s known to travel the world speaking about programming and the way people think and interact while wearing many hats 🎩.
As someone who was a part of the industry from the beginning, PJ defines DevRel for us to kick off our conversation. PJ worked at a deaf school and as a musician for many years before transitioning full time to tech. The lessons he learned prior to that transition have proven to be pivotal in his DevRel career in comparison to what his formal CS degree provided. He worked as a software engineer for many years and says he was “tricked into doing DevRel” when he gave a spontaneous lightning talk that ultimately turned into many many more talks! He went on to form a community team, continued to travel the world giving talks, and helped define and shape the DevRel space itself. Eventually, PJ started his own company, DevRelate, which offers Developer and Community Relations as a service. 
PJ is passionate about destigmatizing mental health in the tech industry and offers to collaborate and brainstorm ways to do so with listeners! This episode is packed full of advice and wisdom, especially for those interested in breaking into the DevRel space- be sure to give a listen!
Resources: 
Open Sourcing Mental Illness 
Devrelate.io 
DevOps Days Buffalo 
CodeDaze
ElixirDaze

PJ's podcast: @Community_Pulse
Follow PJ on Twitter: @aspleenic

We Belong Here Podcast: 
Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding 
WeBelongPodcast.com website
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LoLoCoding.com