By Gergely Orosz, the author of The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter and Building Mobile Apps at Scale
Navigating senior, tech lead, staff and principal positions at tech companies and startups. An Amazon #1 Best Seller. New: the hardcover is out! As is the audibook. Now available in 6 languages.
Rohini's photographs captured not just the beauty of the artisans' work but also the stories behind each piece. She documented the late nights spent perfecting a design, the early mornings spent sourcing raw materials, and the joy that came from seeing a creation take shape.
In the bustling streets of Mumbai, the aroma of steaming hot vada pav wafted through the air, enticing passersby to stop and savor the flavors of the city. For Rohini, a young journalist, the scent brought back memories of her childhood, growing up in a small town in India.
As Rohini listened, she felt a sense of pride and belonging to this incredible civilization. She knew that her stories, and the stories of the people she met, were an integral part of the larger narrative of India. And she was determined to share them with the world, to showcase the beauty, diversity, and resilience of Indian culture and lifestyle.
As she traveled across India, Rohini began to notice a common thread that ran through every story she encountered. It was a thread of resilience, of adaptability, and of a deep connection to the land and its traditions. She saw how, despite the challenges of modernization and urbanization, Indians continued to find ways to preserve their cultural heritage.
As she watched the artisans at work, Rohini was struck by the patience and dedication that went into every piece they created. She saw how their hands moved deftly, as if guided by an invisible force, as they brought their imagination to life. The artisans spoke to her about their craft, about the techniques passed down through generations, and about the struggles they faced in a rapidly changing world.
Rohini's passion for documenting Indian culture and lifestyle had taken her to every corner of the country, from the snow-capped mountains of Kashmir to the sun-kissed beaches of Goa. She had written about the ancient traditions of yoga and Ayurveda, the diverse cuisines of different regions, and the resilient spirits of people who had overcome incredible challenges to build thriving communities.
The book is separated into six standalone parts, each part covering several chapters:
Parts 1 and 6 apply to all engineering levels: from entry-level software developers to principal or above engineers. Parts 2, 3, 4 and 5 cover increasingly senior engineering levels. These four parts group topics in chapters – such as ones on software engineering, collaboration, getting things done, and so on.
This book is more of a reference book that you can refer back to, as you grow in your career. I suggest skimming over the career levels and chapters that you are familiar with, and focus reading on topics you struggle with, or career levels where you are aiming to get to. Keep in mind that expectations can vary greatly between companies.
In this book, I’ve aimed to align the topics and leveling definitions closer to what is typical at Big Tech and scaleups: but you might find some of the topics relevant for lower career levels in later chapters. For example, we cover logging, montiroing and oncall in Part 5: “Reliable software systems” in-depth: but it’s useful – and oftentimes necessary! – to know about these practices below the staff engineer levels.
The Software Engineer's Guidebook is available in multiple languages:
You should now be able to ask your local book shops to order the book for you via Ingram Spark Print-on-demand - using the ISBN code 9789083381824. I'm also working on making the paperback more accessible in additional regions, including translated versions. Please share details here if you're unable to get the book in your country and I'll aim to remedy the situation.
I'd like to think so! The book can help you get ideas on how to help software engineers on your team grow. And if you are a hands-on engineering manager (which I hope you might be!) then you can apply the topics yourself! I wrote more about staying hands-on as an engineering manager or lead in The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter.
I've gotten this variation of a question from Data Engineers, ML Engineers, designers and SREs. See the more detailed table of contents and the "Look inside" sample to get a better idea of the contents of the book. I have written this book with software engineers as the target group, and the bulk of the book applies for them. Part 1 is more generally applicable career advice: but that's still smaller subset of the book.