The Software Engineer's Guidebook (Paperback)

In my first few years as a developer I assumed that hard work was all I needed. Then I was passed over for a promotion and my manager couldn't give me feedback on what areas to improve, so I could get to the senior engineer level. I was frustrated; even bitter: not as much about missing the promotion, but because of the lack of guidance.

By the time I became a manager, I was determined to support engineers reporting to me with the kind of feedback and support I wish I would have gotten years earlier. And I did. While my team tripled over the next two years, people became visibly better engineers, and this progression was clear from performance reviews and promotions.

This book is a summary of the advice I've given to software engineers over the years - and then some more.

This book follows the structure of a "typical" career path for a software engineer, from starting out as a fresh-faced software developer, through being a role model senior/lead, all the way to the staff/principle/distinguished level. It summarizes what I've learned as a developer and how I've approached coaching engineers at different stages of their careers.

We cover "soft" skills which become increasingly important as your seniority increases, and the "hard" parts of the job, like software engineering concepts and approaches which help you grow professionally.

The names of levels and their expectations can - and do! - vary across companies. The higher "tier" a business is, the more tends to be expected of engineers, compared to lower tier places. For example, the "senior engineer" level has notoriously high expectations at Google (L5 level) and Meta (E5 level, ) compared to lower-tier companies. If you work at a higher-tier business, it may be useful to read the chapters about higher levels, and not only the level you're currently interested in.

The book is composed of six standalone parts, each made up of several chapters:

• Part 1: Developer Career Fundamentals
• Part 2: The Competent Software Developer
• Part 3: The Well-Rounded Senior Engineer
• Part 4: The Pragmatic Tech Lead
• Part 5: Role Model Staff and Principal Engineers
• Part 6: Conclusion

Parts 1 and 6 apply to all engineering levels, from entry-level software developer, to principal-and-above engineer. Parts 2, 3, 4, and 5 cover increasingly senior engineering levels and group together topics in chapters, such as "Software Engineering," "Collaboration," "Getting Things Done," etc.

Naming and levels vary, but the principles of what makes a great engineer who is impactful at the individual, team, and organizational levels, are remarkably constant. No matter where you are in your career, I hope this book provides a fresh perspective and new ideas on how to grow as an engineer.

Praise for the book

"From performance reviews to P95 latency, from team dynamics to testing, Gergely demystifies all aspects of a software career. This book is well named: it really does feel like the missing guidebook for the whole industry."

- Tanya Reilly, senior principal engineer and author of The Staff Engineer's Path

"Spanning a huge range of topics from technical to social in a concise manner, this belongs on the desk of any software engineer looking to grow their impact and their career. You'll reach for it again and again for sage advice in any situation."

- James Stanier, Director of Engineering at Shopify, author of TheEngineeringManager.com

在我作為一名開發人員的最初幾年裡，我認為只需要努力工作就足夠了。然後我被忽略了晉升的機會，我的經理無法給我反饋意見，告訴我應該在哪些方面改進，以便達到高級工程師的水平。我感到沮喪，甚至有些憤怒，不是因為錯過了晉升的機會，而是因為缺乏指導。

當我成為一名經理時，我決心以我希望在早些年得到的那種反饋和支持來支持報告給我的工程師。我做到了。在接下來的兩年裡，我的團隊增長了三倍，人們成為了明顯更好的工程師，這一進步在績效評估和晉升中清晰可見。

這本書是我多年來給軟體工程師提供的建議的總結，並且還有更多。

這本書按照軟體工程師的“典型”職業生涯路徑的結構來撰寫，從新手軟體開發人員開始，進入到資深/領導角色，一直到高級/首席/傑出級別。它總結了我作為一名開發人員的經驗以及我如何在不同階段的工程師中進行指導。

我們涵蓋了隨著資歷的增長而變得越來越重要的“軟”技能，以及工作中的“硬”部分，例如軟體工程概念和方法，這些都有助於您的專業成長。

級別的名稱和期望可以在不同公司之間有所不同。隨著企業級別的提高，相對於低級別的地方，對工程師的期望也會增加。例如，在Google（L5級別）和Meta（E5級別）中，“資深工程師”級別的期望非常高，相對於低級別公司。如果您在一家高級別的企業工作，閱讀關於更高級別的章節可能會很有用，而不僅僅是您目前感興趣的級別。

本書由六個獨立的部分組成，每個部分由幾個章節組成：
- 第一部分：開發人員職業基礎
- 第二部分：能幹的軟體開發人員
- 第三部分：全面發展的資深工程師
- 第四部分：務實的技術領導
- 第五部分：榜樣的首席和傑出工程師
- 第六部分：結論

第一部分和第六部分適用於所有工程師級別，從初級軟體開發人員到首席工程師及以上。第二、三、四和五部分涵蓋了越來越高級的工程師級別，並將主題分為章節，例如“軟體工程”、“協作”、“完成任務”等等。

雖然名稱和級別有所不同，但在個人、團隊和組織層面上成為一名出色的工程師所需的原則是非常穩定的。無論您在職業生涯的哪個階段，我希望這本書能為您提供新的視角和成長的新思路。

對於這本書的讚譽：

“從績效評估到P95延遲，從團隊動力到測試，Gergely對軟體職業的各個方面進行了解密。這本書的名字很貼切：它確實感覺像整個行業所缺少的指南。”
- Tanya Reilly，高級首席工程師，作者《首席工程師之路》

“這本書以簡潔的方式涵蓋了從技術到社交的各種主題，對於任何希望提高影響力和職業生涯的軟體工程師來說，這本書都應該放在桌上。在任何情況下，您都會一次又一次地尋求它的智慧建議。”
- James Stanier，Shopify工程總監，《TheEngineeringManager.com》的作者