Students present a unique opportunity for developer relations programs. When done well, engaging student developers can create long-term affinity for your product, leading to adoption as they enter the workforce. However, the return on investment can take years, making it a challenging prospect for many companies.
Joe Nash, previously GitHubâs Student Program Manager, has built a career around student-focused developer advocacy. His experience at Major League Hacking, PayPal, and GitHub has shaped his approach to effective student engagement. Hereâs how you can build a successful developer relations program for students.
Understanding Student Motivations
The first step in engaging student developers is understanding their primary motivation: gaining the skills necessary to secure jobs.
Joe:
"We understand more about studentsâ needs and their goals: to graduate and get good jobs. Thatâs a really powerful thing to know because it tells us a lot about how we can help them.
"As developer relations people, we have knowledge on novel topics. Students need that kind of specialist knowledge to be able to say to a company, âOh yeah, Iâve seen a talk before on this,â or, âIâve been involved with this particular DevRel person,â and thatâs really useful for them. They recognize that what they need from you are your skills and your education."
Actionable Steps:
- Provide educational resources that align with career development.
- Offer hands-on opportunities like workshops and mentorship.
- Share industry-relevant insights that bridge the gap between academia and real-world development.
Making Your Technology Accessible to Students
Beyond understanding studentsâ motivations, you need to ensure that your tools and technology are accessible to them.
Joe:
"Itâs no good rocking up to a student event with an API or a product that has a monthly fee because students just canât afford it. So you need to make it available, we need to make it free or accessible to them, but more than that you need to make sure that itâs technically accessible as well.
"If youâre distributing your client libraries for your API through the latest JavaScript package manager, thatâs very difficult for a student because students in universities arenât being taught JavaScript and theyâre not being taught the cutting-edge things in the JavaScript ecosystem.
"Just provide the file, give a CDN. Make it easy for people to get a hold of. Donât assume that youâve got a full-time developer who has the time and is using your workflow. And that speaks to documentation, as well. With documentation, you really need to make sure that it at least links to the basics or addresses things at a higher level of detail.
"Your documentation doesnât work until itâs been through a first-year CS undergraduate."
Actionable Steps:
- Provide free access to your product for students.
- Offer simplified installation and onboarding processes.
- Ensure documentation includes beginner-friendly explanations and examples.
- Gather feedback from students to refine usability and documentation.
Leveraging Student Communities
Instead of trying to reach every student directly, focus on working with student-led organizations.
Joe:
"There are thousands of campuses and you could spend your entire life flying to campuses and giving one-hour talks. But the nice thing about students is they have clubs, they have what we call 'societies' in the UK. They gather for events like hackathons, and those are all led by students themselves."
Actionable Steps:
- Identify and collaborate with student organizations, hackathon groups, and coding clubs.
- Empower student leaders to advocate for your product.
- Offer direct engagement opportunities for student leaders through ambassador programs.
Building a Student Advocacy Program
GitHubâs Campus Experts program is an example of a structured student advocacy initiative.
Joe:
"We give our campus experts the technical leadership skills they need, and if they want to use the GitHub brand then theyâre welcome to, but thereâs no expectation. They donât ever have to mention GitHub. However, a lot of them want to get more engaged with GitHub, especially in regions that are underserved, like India and Africa where, as an individual, having the GitHub brand association is very powerful for them.
"And itâs given us a fantastic ability to scale. Not just at student events, but other engagements we do. For example, our education team at GitHub is just four people. We recently had 20 new students graduate from our training scheme and then go out to do 40 events in seven countries. Thatâs a huge, huge uptick in the number of engagements weâre able to do."
Actionable Steps:
- Create a structured student advocacy or ambassador program.
- Provide leadership training and technical mentorship.
- Enable students to run events and represent your brand on campus.
Managing Turnover and Continuity
Student developer communities naturally experience high turnover as students graduate.
Joe:
"Every year a group of students leave and every year a new group of students come in. You lose knowledge, and you lose personal connections each time. So as a DevRel person, that means every year you need to be keeping up to date with who is the new student leader on campus."
Actionable Steps:
- Maintain ongoing relationships with student leaders.
- Encourage mentorship within student groups to ensure continuity.
- Keep track of leadership transitions and engage with incoming students.
The Business Case for Student Developer Relations
While student engagement requires long-term investment, it offers significant benefits.
Joe:
"The most obvious one is recruitment. Youâve got these really talented students and you can get to them early. Theyâre gonna make great interns, great junior members of your team.
"Earlier we spoke about studentsâ need for novel skills. If you are the one to teach them those novel skills, and those skills are geared towards your platform, when they get into a company and they want to prove themselves, they can show their new team that they have useful knowledge."
Actionable Steps:
- Use student programs as a talent pipeline for internships and junior hires.
- Position your product as a valuable skillset for students entering the workforce.
- Track engagement to measure long-term adoption in professional settings.
Measuring Student Developer Engagement
Since the return on investment takes years, tracking meaningful metrics is essential.
Joe:
"The primary program we have thatâs open to all students is the GitHub Student Developer Pack. We can see how many students are using GitHub, how many go on to premium accounts, and how many end up on business or enterprise plans."
Actionable Steps:
- Track student engagement through free-tier programs.
- Measure conversion rates from student users to professional and enterprise accounts.
- Assess student involvement in open source and developer communities.
Conclusion
Engaging with student developers is a long-term investment with substantial benefits. By understanding their needs, making technology accessible, leveraging student communities, and tracking key metrics, developer relations teams can build successful, scalable student programs that pay dividends over time.