From contributor to Elastician: Insider tips from former Gold Contributor João Neto

João is a senior customer architect at Elastic and holds a graduate and postgraduate degree in information security. He has all Elastic certifications (including Elasticsearch, Observability, Analytics, and Elastic GenAI Associate Certification - beta), ITIL, and ISO 27002. He also enjoys contributing to the community by sharing knowledge and speaking at events, such as Campus Party, DevOpsDays, and ElasticON. Since 2019, he has acted as a community organizer of a local user group in Brazil — one of the largest active Elastic communities in South America. And last but not least, João loves being Arthur’s dad, which he likes to say is his best qualification.

I had the opportunity to learn about Elastic solutions in 2017, and it was love at first log collection. At that time, I worked as an information security analyst. With the help of Elastic solutions, I could reduce work that used to take several days to be done in just a few hours. It wasn't an easy job. Back then, there was little content to explore and learn from, let alone content in my native language (Brazilian Portuguese). So that motivated me to start writing articles, recording videos, and speaking at events. The feeling of helping people achieve good results for their business without having the same issues that I had was the best feeling in the world.

In 2019, I joined the first edition of the Elastic Contributor Program. I didn't finish as a top contributor back then, but the friends I made along the way were a true present. In the following two years, I became a Gold Contributor, which was very gratifying. Learning that I've built so much respect within the community is really valuable to me. I'm also very grateful for Ully Sampaio, Elastic’s community programs manager, for all of her support throughout my journey. The Elastic DevRel team truly supports the community and that's very important to keep it growing.

Regarding skills and knowledge, I believe that all knowledge is valid. During my journey, I tried to explore new features to understand more about Elastic and learn how it could help people and companies in their day-to-day lives. Because of that, in 2020, I was invited to become a senior consultant in Elastic solutions at one of Elastic's largest partners in Brazil — an opportunity that came from a friend from the Elastic community. This was a turning point in my personal and professional life; becoming an Elastic consultant opened several doors for me. 

As a reward for being an Elastic contributor, I received a certification voucher, which I dedicated myself to and got certified as an Elasticsearch engineer. In the following years, I achieved the other two Elastic certifications, and in 2022, I had the opportunity to work at another Elastic partner in Brazil as a tech lead and senior consultant. Guess where the invitation came from? Yes, another friend I made through the Elastic community.

This whole journey helped me gain two significant achievements in 2024 that changed my life again. The first was being recognized as Elastic’s Certified Professional of the Year. And later, I got hired by Elastic as a senior customer architect — this has been my dream job for years, so it was a big accomplishment for me.

In short, this whole process made me a qualified professional to the point of having a complete journey at Elastic — from user to partner to becoming an Elastician! This also brought me good results in my personal life. I managed to improve my family's quality of life, especially because throughout this journey, I managed to increase my salary by 5x!

I like to learn, write, present talks, teach, and so on. But today, what I am most proud of is that I could help improve the lives of two great friends after bringing them to the “Elastic” world. They both work as consultants at Elastic partners in Brazil. To me, having that impact on their lives is one of the things I value the most.

The first tip is: just start! Once that's done, enjoy the journey; don't be too eager to reach the end. In my first year of the Contributor Program, I ended in 11th place on the leaderboard. This ranking was no less important than any accomplishment in my life. Write about what you know and also about what you are learning — this is an excellent exercise to consolidate knowledge. Another valuable tip is letting people know that you know! Speak up, post on LinkedIn, and promote yourself! Additionally, this Medium article describes my certification strategy. 

In addition to being a program that serves to help the community grow and recognize those who make the most effort, the Elastic Contributor Program also has great power in creating relationships between participants. So, talk to other contributors and read about what they write — I assure you that this will pay off at the end.

The release and timing of any features or functionality described in this post remain at Elastic's sole discretion. Any features or functionality not currently available may not be delivered on time or at all.