Wesley Faulkner felt validated by the dev community after being let go from his first dev job, realizing the community saw value in him when his employer did not.
The dev community provides needed support and belonging, while jobs and employers constantly change. Focus on your values and impact to stay resilient.
Have integrity in all you do
be transparent and honest, even when it's hard. Don't compromise yourself.
Hold yourself and others in the dev community accountable to do the right thing. Speak up when you see problems.
Pay it forward and lift up others in the dev community, as you have been lifted up. Find those who need help and support them.
(00:00) now it's time to say good morning to our first Speaker he's a devell leader a podcaster a public speaker he's super passionate um advocate for equity and inclusivity he's also creative kind and seriously something incredible about this human is he is always early so if you're having a party and you're worried it'll be empty for the first hour invite him I promise he will bring the party and he will be there very early without further Ado I'm honored to invite our keynote speaker senior
(00:33) community manager at AWS and tenur technologist at places like atlassian Dell and mongod DB Mr Wesley fauler thank you hello everyone if you had talked to me at any of the previous events you probably heard me say one thing about my talk today that I'm super nervous also ill-prepared one thing is when I was asked to give the keynote for develon you think set the tone for the conference um but for me it's like evaluate my whole entire life and it was hard for me to kind of fit everything that I wanted to say in a
(01:27) box especially a 25-minute box but it made me think that the the title of the keynote is uh it's not here maybe I do I need to do that nope all right so it's a community of leaders and Learners and The Duality of that made me really kind of question how do I set the tone in the environment that is today and if you've been watching the news if you've been talking to everyone in Dev you realize it's Rocky out there it's it's not the best um but it does feel like the best job and the the tone or the reflection on my
(02:13) career feels like it mirrors the outside world the The Duality of things in terms of I feel like I need to be here I need to be in this space but also when you look at companies cutting devil jobs are we important do we make a difference my my first Dev rcon was in 2019 and um it brought me to San Francisco to find if this is the thing for me I was just let go from my first devil job I was told that I was not doing the thing that I was supposed to do and then back then when I I needed a job I just put it out on Twitter saying
(03:00) I need a job uh I've just been let go it's it's been real is there a place for me and immediately I was inundated with messages of support messages of validation where I did not get that in my job and it was overwhelming um I felt like that I was being seen and so in in one count the people who basically were their job to evaluate me if I was doing a good job didn't see me the people out there the people I touched the people who saw me reinforced that I was worth something and that Duality never really
(03:48) left me that in one domain I could be successful in another domain I could be nothing and I went to devel KH con not knowing if I can find another job but day after day people would say I think you're great I've seen your work it's it's great we want to have you by the time I made it to De ran uh I met great people great friends a lot of you are in the audience um and and that reinforced that it wasn't me that needed to be validated by the people who paid me but validated by the community validated
(04:32) by each one of you because that is what told me that this is where I needed to be um and as I thought about my history The Duality and me finding my home uh it really it really solidified I would say five core values and so the core values that I felt that I got is what my presentation is on and The Duality of like how things can be simple but yet complicated how things can be clear yet you have plenty of room to fill in the blanks is something that I want to impart with each one of you and at the same time it's going to be new but
(05:23) should be familiar cuz we are all in Devil and we need to be flexible we're built to be flexible we're buil to learn and we'll bu to teach and us as a group we need to come together during this time when at the same time they say we need devell we need to find someone we need to find the right person we need to execute on a plan but we need to have strategy we need to show impact but we need long-term growth we want you to do sales but no we want you to do marketing right so the duality of the things that
(06:03) we need to do um is going to be in each one of these and I'm going to you saw the first one it's going to be Community from my perspective so this is all from the heart and I think if I reflect what I've learned you'll see it in yourself the community has been nothing that I've ever experienced in devel not just the community that we own and manage when we do our jobs but the community of ourselves and how we support each other during the pandemic I was super honest and super open about how I didn't
(06:41) feel like I belonged how I never really fit in everywhere which caused me to kind of fit in everywhere because if I am one of a million then I don't need to conform I can be myself and I don't have to do that which allow owed me to be in my body which be present which means that I felt the same and I felt belonging wherever I went but when I opened up about you know me not having a place in devell or sometimes not having a place in this world those dog thoughts I didn't have to hold I talked to the
(07:22) community I talked to everyone in devel and they told me the same thing you do belong here we want you here we need you and without that support I don't think I could have made it and I've never had that community in any group that I've ever been in and what I want you to take from that is that to be yourself to be accepted you do not need the validation of the people who hired you what you need to do is make sure that you are within yourself and that that part you can bring to the community jobs are going to
(08:00) change but it doesn't matter what that name that logo is on your badge when you go to a conference that could cycle but your community will always be here we will always be here for you I will be here for you if you need me so if you feel like Community is this then I consider you part of this community so that's all you need to do is to say yes and then boom you are initiated so we're all here and I love being around people I love being with people and this is part of community and that's why I love you as devil
(08:42) practitioners and that's why I love you as people love youo thank you and then the the next principle on my list is resilience because things are so hard it's hard to to kind of feel like you can still be yourself you have people who tell you you're not enough you're too much you have people tell you you're not technical enough you're too technical you have people who tell you that you're not on social media or you spend too much time on it there are things that is going to challenge your core once you get
(09:26) grounded in yourself it makes it super hard to to feel like those evaluations is equal to your worth you need to disconnect that and you need to be more in yourself so the resilience is for you to be unwavering for you to have a set of values that won't change no matter who signs your paycheck or who's in the room with you you need to make sure that you stay steadfast and don't give up that thing that makes you you remember your core remember your values and take that with you that validation comes from only one
(10:08) person and that's yourself and you need to do that to stay resilient it's not where the flag blows it's not where the economy goes it is where you go and that sets the tone and you need to make sure that that never changes and the resilience leads to perseverance perseverance uh like trying to pronounce something you got to keep going in order to make sure you get it right so for perseverance it's different than resilience resiliance is staying very stoic staying like a stone and unmovable those are the things that make
(10:46) you you outside of that there are things that make what you do matter there are things and impacts that you make that is going to be great what you need to do is stay in in your perseverance if you're fighting for what's right if you're fighting for the thing that is going to cause impact that is going to change lives that is going to make sure that what you're doing matters you need to keep trying no matter if people say that you speak too bluntly or they say the way you delivered it didn't feel good to
(11:23) me I'm not saying don't care for people's feelings I'm not saying don't try to adjust so that you you can make your point more palatable what I'm saying is don't give up your core but don't stand still always push that envelope always find the edges and then make sure that you once you establish your circle keep going disguise the limit we are people that make impact we are people that represent not only ourselves but companies products services and in some spaces technology itself the people in this
(12:08) room are probably emissaries to some of the most powerful companies in the world that is very weighty and that is why you cannot push the boundaries further without realizing that it's important what we do is important and what you are is important in order to do that perseverance so stay within yourself use your community if you need to but come on let's not sit on our Laurels let's have our standards higher and we need to keep making sure that we keep having those difficult conversations we need to keep making
(12:49) sure that we do the right thing and that comes with Integrity if you're able to consistently show your value values consistently say what you're going to do and then do what you're going to say you are going to have a reputation of someone that is honest and has the right thing in their heart that they want to make sure spreads throughout the world we are nothing without Integrity our badges might change jobs but our reputation will follow us everywhere and if you are trying to participate in capitalism
(13:34) like we all do there are some compromises but Integrity should not be one of them sometimes you might send an email asking for help asking for a promotion uh saying like hey if you couldn't mind if you mind hitting the retweet button uh sliding to someone's DL DMS asking for help with their job even though it's not something that you want to do you don't want to be a salesperson you want to do marketing you don't want to do customer service those are things that we come sometimes we have to
(14:04) do but your integrity where it's coming from that matters don't leave out information don't Mis label something don't say a product will do everything don't say that we will fix all your problems we are the people of it depends right that it it it depends on your situation it depends on your Tech stack make sure that you don't give super solid answers to Wavy problems you need to make sure that you have the caveat be transparent be honest and and make sure that there is a match where there needs to be one but don't
(14:44) force it if there's some brand new technology that says that it will end world hunger it will democratize I don't know power um be skeptical ask the right questions make sure you know what you're representing before you go out and represent it and be honest and if it doesn't work out meaning the things in their edge cases where it breaks down make sure you talk about that too of course talk about it internally but don't stop there if you need to when someone asks when you're told to promote
(15:23) something make sure you're honest there as well it's easy to to get into a small group and talk about how something sucks it's harder to get on a camera on a microphone or on the Internet and have that same honesty it might be even harder to have that same honesty with the people who give you your paycheck but you need to do that it's very important and this is one where we need to come together on because we Define what devell is we don't let them do it and if they think devell is just a Hired Gun we need to
(15:59) dispel that right quick what we do is we do the right thing and we always do the right thing and then there's accountability so of course you can control your own actions but you also need to speak out when you see other people make the wrong choice we need to hold people accountable and that's including me if you ever see me do something that violates what we call devil please let me know we need to keep each other in line because we all have our own reputation but we also represent the industry as a whole and if devrell is if
(16:39) its Integrity is somehow compromised if it's delegitimized that hurts all of us and so we need to make sure that we all do the right thing all the time consistently in public and private all the time and that is what we signed up for when we did this because what is it saying like no one can Define Devo no one knows what it is but we all know what it is you know it when you see it you know it when you see it done wrong and when you see it done wrong say something about it don't just gossip don't just back
(17:22) Channel choose which way is respectful of course but also don't stay silent when we talked about Community before I mentioned that I found my community in those communities of course there are little clicks and sometimes those clicks can become toxic and sometimes they can be a force for good if you're in those spaces make sure it is the latter and not the former having integrity and having accountability is the thing that's going to make sure sure that we are all doing the right thing for everyone at all
(18:03) times and it might feel uncomfortable it might feel awkward and and sometimes it might feel a little gatekeeping and I'm not talking about keeping people out out I'm talking about keeping people honest if they say that they are one of us if they say that they are for truth and they're for technology and they're for advancement and they're for equality and they're for making sure that everyone can get something out of our relationship meaning that it's not just selling to sell and it's not just taking
(18:38) to take we need to have an ecosystem at devel all of us together and in that we need to have those uncomfortable conversations and we're built to be uncomfortable right if you're in technology I mean it always changes who who knows what's going to happen today what's going to happen tomorrow and we all know what's happening out there the instability is what we're born with this is what we are used to and this is a thing that we are made to be adjusted for so being uncomfortable is not new so
(19:11) get ready to be more uncomfortable by being uncomfortable together and making sure that we are keeping each other accountable and last but not least pay it forward some people aren't in this room some people aren't in this industry anymore some people aren't here to hear this but if you get what I'm saying give it to someone else if you understand and you agree recognize when other people are on that journey I wouldn't be here I I me and I I wouldn't be on this stage if there wasn't someone sticking their
(20:01) hand down and pulling me up and I bet most of you can say the same thing about where you are right now what you need to do is make sure you put your hand down and you pull other people up with you you didn't get here on your own and the next group won't get there without you so I want you to pay it for it I want you to find someone here and someone out there that needs help I want you to not leave Dev Ron thinking that you just got great knowledge but how you can help other people most of the people in this
(20:43) room love devil some of the people in this room have been in Devil less than a year some people have no have never done devel outside of a pandemic some of the people in Devil have never let a program create a strategy built Community there are problems that they are going to discover and they're going to need your help so please don't just think about what knowledge you'll get think about the knowledge you'll give do that in your sessions do that on conference do that during lunch do it after this and
(21:20) you get together find the people who you know need help and then offer that to them let's be a community not a community of one let's do be a community of all okay make sure we're all getting what we need and make sure we are there to help we're a community of leaders and we are a community of Learners and that Duality will never change I don't know everyone in this room I haven't met everyone in this room so there's a lot that I don't know but at the same time I love each and every
(21:56) one of you because because I'm not just of devell I mean devell is part of me and that means that we are all connected and for that reason I know that I love and care about each one of you that won't change it even if you're not able to be accountable if you're not able to be resilient if you're not able to be persistent that's not a judgment of you that's just a judgment of them and out there it's complicated but in here in this room in devell we have to take care of each other I'll always be there for
(22:36) you and hopefully you will always be there for each other and with that thank you thank you for your time I [Music] [Applause] have I have I have I have five minutes for Q&A but there's just one more thing I talked about duality I talk about ying and yang there's like a hard remember that when there's adversity there's also joy that when you have the weight of responsibility you also have the the kind of like accountability that goes with it um there's a lot of times also that we're
(23:19) given responsibility without the agency and it it makes it really hard um and and for me to be able to stick with that I I I need a Talisman I need something to remind me and for that I have a surprise I created these challenge coins and so if you want come to me and I'll give you one of these so I have a hundred of these printed it's Dev conon on the front and the avocado with the sayings on the back so this is something that I want you to carry with you to remind you you of what we are and what we do and at the very bottom it says pay it
(24:05) forward so on your journey through being devell please find someone who needs this and make sure you pass it on to them all right thank [Applause] you I am open for questions I have the mic that I can bring to you that's why I'm standing awkwardly so close to you okay no questions I have one oh you got so amazing talk and in the beginning hi Nikita Kos if I talk about open source nonstop I'm autistic sorry not sorry uh so in the beginning you raised the question about people getting fired at the moment because of state and
(24:48) Industry and you rais the question are we really needed of course we are needed but can you maybe say why what is the difference we are bringing to the in industry okay that's a I'll repeat it this is a why we needed and uh this is going to be a controversial answer um and that's fine I'll I'll take the slings and arrows the reason why we're needed is because just I think Devil is a holistic industry it is something that doesn't just touch sales it doesn't just touch marketing it doesn't just touch
(25:22) customer service or Community it touches everything um and in order to really have a coherent story you need to understand the birth the death The Goods the bads and um and like I said about being the conscious of a company even though that might not be something that's listed in a job description I think it's extremely V uh valuable um if sales is doing something that is going against what the the pillars of the company is we they need to be held accountable if marketing is doing the same thing if customer service is doing
(26:00) something that's just antithetical to the value systems of the company that's ultimately going to hurt the company it they may not see it shortterm but long term that's going to trash the whole thing and when we represent companies if we are the conscious of that company both publicly and personally and I I know we work in capitalism we all need jobs but uh the world is not going to change unless we change it and we are in the unique position to do that so how do we how do we make sure that we do the
(26:37) right thing is to make sure that people around us do the right thing and that people around us know that we will call them out if they don't and that forces them to do the right thing if they don't want to so for the sustainable of the industry and the suain sustainable ability of the company that's why we're needed because no other Position will do that no other position has that visibility or that impact yeah comment for you hi Wesley first of all big fan big big fan um you mentioned integrity and
(27:13) I'm wondering like where you kind of stand on the concept of of Rehabilitation like devell as as an agent of rehabbing a company that maybe has a bad Community profile or a bad negative connotation and you taking what you see as you know being being res being perseverant and going out in the community and saying hey I'm currently representing this company that ain't so great over the last couple years but I'm trying to help can you trust me to help do you think that that's something that
(27:39) more people should focus on in devell instead of like saying like I just want to get to the Fang companies and make the money so there's Integrity on both parts right there's Integrity of the company that hires you and the and being an actor in that company um and uh I'm sure you are familiar with um people who have integrity but washed out uh companies and those people are the Canary and the coal mine to use a phrase um so it's um I I consider those companies Persona ngr if you you burn someone who is doing the right thing
(28:18) that means ultimately your company doesn't care about what the right thing is um and anyone after that if they are not able to make that change then they should make sure that they keep being the annoying voice that keeps bringing it up but if you work for those companies because you have to I mean everyone's different um that doesn't mean that you still can't speak up right you can't say hey I work for XYZ company do not come here right do not buy their stuff I'm saying this privately because I can't say it
(28:56) publicly but it shouldn't be posting on LinkedIn saying hey our Department's hiring that is leading people into like a Kill Zone of where they're going to their Soul's going to be crushed and their words is not going to mean anything um so I'm not saying quit a job but I'm saying don't pretend like everything's okay when it's not so that's if you have integrity I I hope that's something you would subscribed to and we're out of time thank you find me and I'll get you your challenge coin
(29:30) thank you for your time I really appreciate [Applause] it
