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The Coding Career Handbook. Guides, Principles, Strategies, and Tactics – from Code Newbie to Senior Dev
The Coding will always be the easiest part of a Coding Career. This is a comprehensive guide about the principles, strategies and tactics developers can use to build an awesome career!
Career Guides.
Specific advice on every career stage from Code Newbie to Junior Dev to Senior Dev, and every transition after: the First Job Hunt, going from Junior to Senior, and Beyond.
Principles.
The best investments are in things that don't change. We discuss timeless rules for successful default behaviour. Learn to grow your network and expertise, while you learn.
Strategies.
Everything to do with making big moves, from Betting on Technologies, to Career Ladders, to Software Business Models. Grow your business and personal impact!
Tactics
Important, self-contained skills that you can repeatedly call on throughout your career, from Negotiating to Side Projects to Twitter to Writing.
Career Guides.
Specific advice on every career stage from Code Newbie to Junior Dev to Senior Dev, and every transition after: the First Job Hunt, going from Junior to Senior, and Beyond.
Principles.
The best investments are in things that don't change. We discuss timeless rules for successful default behaviour. Learn to grow your network and expertise, while you learn.
Strategies.
Everything to do with making big moves, from Betting on Technologies, to Career Ladders, to Software Business Models. Grow your business and personal impact!
Tactics
Important, self-contained skills that you can repeatedly call on throughout your career, from Negotiating to Side Projects to Twitter to Writing.
478 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 2020
46 people are currently reading
550 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 31, 2021
I chose this book partly to get some perspective on what to do next after my first programming job and partly out of curiosity. I've already worked in tech, and, just like the author, I switched from product management to engineering. So I was curious to know about other career options or avenues I hadn't considered.
The author is a self-taught developer who changed careers a few times until landing on tech; one he likes. As he mentions in the book, he's a frontend dev who specializes in serverless applications. He's proud to have made a name for himself as 'that guy who's all about learning in public,' already wrote countless blog posts and tweets, and is praised by some notable peers in the industry.
The book's main thesis is that you can and should manage your tech career like you're a business.. It can be an intense read, but it has a "big brother telling you what's what" vibe to it, in the attempt to pass down hard-earned knowledge. It's more prescriptive than other books aimed at early-stage developers (e.g., the more prosaic "Letters to a young developer") and focused on the business side of technology.
It's not just for juniors; in fact, mid-to-senior people may find it the most useful. Beginners may learn something valuable about which technology to focus their learning efforts on, but the meat of it is about managing mid-to-later stages of your career, discovering and marketing your worth accordingly.
Two things I really liked and took away from this book:
I liked that he put into words the mental models and strategies many people in (US) tech employ. There's a lot of implied knowledge that people pick up on when they work there, but you'll rarely find explicitly mentioned in blog posts or tweets. Having worked in San Francisco, I know change happens faster than people can articulate what management school of thought or buzzwords popular at any moment. For example, Do you practice servant leadership? Should you use OKRs? Are you an L5 or L7? Are we in an unbundling era? Is your startup really a platform?).
I also liked the emphasis on writing, and the way writing is framed in the context of how you communicate, and are perceived as a developer. There's a lot to be gained from the chapters on improving your writing across the board, even if you never start a famous blog or become exceptional in one domain.
There are good tips about specializing yourself in something, but it's taken to a local extreme. By this I mean the suggestion to find a topic you like and treat it like you would a PhD, but outside academia, and keep publishing against it. If you lack life and professional experience and follow everything by the book without defining what success looks like to you, you might end up burning out, like you have too much to prove.
Some dislikes:
The heavy business emphasis can also be its downside. Much of the context many not apply to your tech career outside of the US, where tech entrepreneurship, financing, and scaling a tech company look very different, and some career options might not exist (or ever become a thing).
I had also hoped for more information on the dynamics of engineering teams at scale. But since that's not his area of knowledge and expertise, you can get it from authors like Michael Lopp ("Managing Humans"), Camille Fournier ("The Manager's Path"), Will Lethain (on systems thinking in engineering and staff engineer roles) - which he does reference.
One last thing that other people will probably love, but I didn't: the book was chock full of links in almost every paragraph. I get that it's trying to be (ultra)helpful and reference the author's encyclopedic knowledge, but the context switching was too much. Inserting links every few words tends to work well in blog posts, where you can open many tabs for further exploration at a later stage, but I felt like I lost much reading fluency when reading from a mobile device. It'll also be a test of time, if the links are moved or deleted.
If you've ever found yourself going from one unsatisfying job to another and never had a long-term vision for your career, you'll benefit a lot from adopting some of the strategy tips dished out in the book. You'll also likely become more intentional about what you'll learn and work on next, and be better off as a result.
The author is a self-taught developer who changed careers a few times until landing on tech; one he likes. As he mentions in the book, he's a frontend dev who specializes in serverless applications. He's proud to have made a name for himself as 'that guy who's all about learning in public,' already wrote countless blog posts and tweets, and is praised by some notable peers in the industry.
The book's main thesis is that you can and should manage your tech career like you're a business.. It can be an intense read, but it has a "big brother telling you what's what" vibe to it, in the attempt to pass down hard-earned knowledge. It's more prescriptive than other books aimed at early-stage developers (e.g., the more prosaic "Letters to a young developer") and focused on the business side of technology.
It's not just for juniors; in fact, mid-to-senior people may find it the most useful. Beginners may learn something valuable about which technology to focus their learning efforts on, but the meat of it is about managing mid-to-later stages of your career, discovering and marketing your worth accordingly.
Two things I really liked and took away from this book:
I liked that he put into words the mental models and strategies many people in (US) tech employ. There's a lot of implied knowledge that people pick up on when they work there, but you'll rarely find explicitly mentioned in blog posts or tweets. Having worked in San Francisco, I know change happens faster than people can articulate what management school of thought or buzzwords popular at any moment. For example, Do you practice servant leadership? Should you use OKRs? Are you an L5 or L7? Are we in an unbundling era? Is your startup really a platform?).
I also liked the emphasis on writing, and the way writing is framed in the context of how you communicate, and are perceived as a developer. There's a lot to be gained from the chapters on improving your writing across the board, even if you never start a famous blog or become exceptional in one domain.
There are good tips about specializing yourself in something, but it's taken to a local extreme. By this I mean the suggestion to find a topic you like and treat it like you would a PhD, but outside academia, and keep publishing against it. If you lack life and professional experience and follow everything by the book without defining what success looks like to you, you might end up burning out, like you have too much to prove.
Some dislikes:
The heavy business emphasis can also be its downside. Much of the context many not apply to your tech career outside of the US, where tech entrepreneurship, financing, and scaling a tech company look very different, and some career options might not exist (or ever become a thing).
I had also hoped for more information on the dynamics of engineering teams at scale. But since that's not his area of knowledge and expertise, you can get it from authors like Michael Lopp ("Managing Humans"), Camille Fournier ("The Manager's Path"), Will Lethain (on systems thinking in engineering and staff engineer roles) - which he does reference.
One last thing that other people will probably love, but I didn't: the book was chock full of links in almost every paragraph. I get that it's trying to be (ultra)helpful and reference the author's encyclopedic knowledge, but the context switching was too much. Inserting links every few words tends to work well in blog posts, where you can open many tabs for further exploration at a later stage, but I felt like I lost much reading fluency when reading from a mobile device. It'll also be a test of time, if the links are moved or deleted.
If you've ever found yourself going from one unsatisfying job to another and never had a long-term vision for your career, you'll benefit a lot from adopting some of the strategy tips dished out in the book. You'll also likely become more intentional about what you'll learn and work on next, and be better off as a result.
October 23, 2020
This is such a useful book for anybody who has or wants to have a tech career. I extracted 80+ high-value resources in the form of articles, podcasts, opportunities that Shawn has generously sprinkled throughout the pages.
I myself have just begin my career, but I have no doubt that I will continue to reference this book and the linked resources in the coming years as I level up, change roles, or strive to find more meaning in my job.
I myself have just begin my career, but I have no doubt that I will continue to reference this book and the linked resources in the coming years as I level up, change roles, or strive to find more meaning in my job.
October 3, 2022
This book was recommended to me 3 years ago and I never got the time to get past the first chapter. But I can now say proudly that I've completed it and it was on the perfect timing. This book is the best guide throughout your journey in tech from the starting point. It is full of amazing resources that I'm still checking and saved many of them. It's definitely a re-read and I absolutely recommend it especially before graduation. It provided me with a giant amount of information in the technical side, personal branding, how land jobs and many other topics.
March 29, 2022
A high-level overview of the many types of soft-skills and approaches programmers should invest in or take at various stages in their careers, this is extremely useful in terms of banishing "unknown unknowns" and helping coders stay sharp at every level.
December 20, 2020
Es un libro que explica lo que se espera de manera generalizada de un Dev desde fase Junior hasta Senior. También presenta los diferentes caminos que se pueden tomar a partir de Senior, como Engineering Management, Product Manager, DevRel, Entrepreneurship, etc. Me gustó esa parte del libro.
El autor luego introduce el concepto de "Learning in public" que es básicamente crear una imagen pública de ti como desarrollador, que involucra blogguear, tener proyectos de código abierto, usar twitter, construir tu red profesional. Esto con el fin de aprender más rápido con el feedback que recibirías de la comunidad, teóricamente.
Para mi gusto abarca demasiada información sobre este tema, y no es algo que me interese en este punto de mi carrera.
Me gustó el consejo de aprender de los proyectos de código abierto que ya existen en la actualidad. Pero pienso que "Learning in public" no es para todas las personas. Me quedo con un comentario que menciona cerca del final del libro:
"If you can build a successful tech career without being a celebrity, then absolutely do that - unless you just crave the attention".
Buen libro con buenos tips en general.
El autor luego introduce el concepto de "Learning in public" que es básicamente crear una imagen pública de ti como desarrollador, que involucra blogguear, tener proyectos de código abierto, usar twitter, construir tu red profesional. Esto con el fin de aprender más rápido con el feedback que recibirías de la comunidad, teóricamente.
Para mi gusto abarca demasiada información sobre este tema, y no es algo que me interese en este punto de mi carrera.
Me gustó el consejo de aprender de los proyectos de código abierto que ya existen en la actualidad. Pero pienso que "Learning in public" no es para todas las personas. Me quedo con un comentario que menciona cerca del final del libro:
"If you can build a successful tech career without being a celebrity, then absolutely do that - unless you just crave the attention".
Buen libro con buenos tips en general.
December 27, 2021
This book is worth it just because of the insane list of resources I've bookmarked and books I've added to my reading list. A rabbit hole in its own, and I will definitely come back to some of the book sections.
Swyx gives some really good (yet, common sense) advice on what steps we developers should take to market and improve ourselves, and it could be a useful read for both junior and senior developers.
Some things I didn't like:
* the marketing of the "Second brain course" for which I still have no idea what's about, and the course price is whooping $1.5k. Some examples of how this looks like would be much appreciated, as I'm definitely not giving any money to shady courses.
* a lot of links throughout the chapters, it can be a bit distracting sometimes. There are parts in the book that are assuming that we've read some article or book, which usually is not the case, and readers can feel like they are missing on a true understanding of something because they haven't read it.
Swyx gives some really good (yet, common sense) advice on what steps we developers should take to market and improve ourselves, and it could be a useful read for both junior and senior developers.
Some things I didn't like:
* the marketing of the "Second brain course" for which I still have no idea what's about, and the course price is whooping $1.5k. Some examples of how this looks like would be much appreciated, as I'm definitely not giving any money to shady courses.
* a lot of links throughout the chapters, it can be a bit distracting sometimes. There are parts in the book that are assuming that we've read some article or book, which usually is not the case, and readers can feel like they are missing on a true understanding of something because they haven't read it.
February 21, 2021
I'm not a developer, but I read some sample chapters of this and thought the advice applied to code-adjacent jobs in tech, so I bought it. I was right! While there was a lot that didn't apply to me, I found his approach to tech in general to be really practical, if a bit Developer Relations-focused. The most interesting parts of the book for me were the ones about learning in public and learning in private. Shawn's articles on those topics were what drew me to this book in the first place, so I was a little disappointed that they weren't a bigger part of the content. I'm hoping he expands on that in another book, but I would recommend this to someone starting out as a solid starting point and list of resources to work through.
January 25, 2022
This book is literally 25 or so books in one, as others have noted it makes heavy use of hyper links to blogs, articles, videos, xkcd comics, lectures and everything in between from computer science to management, productivity, job hunting and more.
That’s not to say the book itself is just a compendium of links, far from it. I’m very impressed with the authors vast domain even if the book itself is the result of “learning in public” style note-taking. You can clearly see that swyx has been casting a wider net than most would have, and went much more in-depth than otherwise required (see the chapter on productivity).
I can recommend this book as actual, practical advice for the modern programmer/knowledge worker.
That’s not to say the book itself is just a compendium of links, far from it. I’m very impressed with the authors vast domain even if the book itself is the result of “learning in public” style note-taking. You can clearly see that swyx has been casting a wider net than most would have, and went much more in-depth than otherwise required (see the chapter on productivity).
I can recommend this book as actual, practical advice for the modern programmer/knowledge worker.
January 7, 2023
This book serves as an excellent guide for those looking to start or advance their career in tech. It covers a wide range of topics, from preparing for technical interviews and landing your first job, to developing your skills as a engineer and climbing the career ladder.
"If you need ideas, think about which of your experiences overlap with hot topics. Accessibility, Automation, AI, Design Systems, No Code, GraphQL, Serverless, Service Discovery, Infrastructure as Code. Everyone has the same insecurities and in a way you are there to satisfy their insecurities. Conference organizers look to other conferences for inspiration, and so should you."
“Make something interesting in real life, and go share it where people are interested in what you did.”
"If you need ideas, think about which of your experiences overlap with hot topics. Accessibility, Automation, AI, Design Systems, No Code, GraphQL, Serverless, Service Discovery, Infrastructure as Code. Everyone has the same insecurities and in a way you are there to satisfy their insecurities. Conference organizers look to other conferences for inspiration, and so should you."
“Make something interesting in real life, and go share it where people are interested in what you did.”
May 2, 2021
Supremely useful reference book for how to think about a modern software engineering career. Highly recommended. Learnt A LOT from reading this book and definitely also one to return to again and again in the future.
August 24, 2022
The price is steep, but the principles in this book are great.
My favorite part of the book is the plethora of links that it has. It's such a good flyover of what has happened in the last 30 years of programming, what the current zeitgeist is, and how to succeed in the future.
My favorite part of the book is the plethora of links that it has. It's such a good flyover of what has happened in the last 30 years of programming, what the current zeitgeist is, and how to succeed in the future.
July 23, 2024
An amazing book that I will read every year. The book really did broaden my view on my career. It not just really about making a career, it is about how to live as life as a human also as a programmer.
February 8, 2025
The diversity chapter is absolutely hilarious especially after Trump became the President and most big techs reverted their diversity hire policies. I wonder why… It might do with a fact that skills must be by far the most important factor when comparing potential hires.
February 26, 2021
Best software development general career book I have read as of yet.
March 7, 2022
A wealth of supplemental material is referenced in the text of the book.
April 8, 2022
This book is a collection of brilliant practical advice for any professional (not just developers, even though they are the main focus). If you want to move on with your career, this is a good read.
September 24, 2022
I like the content overall, it did touch a lot of areas software engineer would come across in their career, and brings up some interesting ideas or links.
October 15, 2022
New developers should read this book to better grasp how much general knowledge there is about how their industry operates.
September 23, 2023
Lots of curious links to look through.
September 27, 2022
An overwhelming read. But it has lots of tips and resources for anyone interested in learning or
getting a different perspective specially form the plethora of external links mentioned in the book.
I read it cover to cover but you may only pick the sections which you find interesting.
getting a different perspective specially form the plethora of external links mentioned in the book.
I read it cover to cover but you may only pick the sections which you find interesting.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews