After a four year journey, the book I wrote to help junior and mid-level programmers earn their first promotion was published today . The book is titled Junior to Senior: Career Advice for the Ambitious Programmer and is now available on Holloway’s website[0].<p>I truly believe that soft-skills are what makes the difference between a good programmer and a great one. I also believe that anyone can learn the soft-skills needed to accelerate their programming career.<p>I wish I’d had better resources to learn these things in the early years of my career and I’m hoping this book will become a useful resource for the next generation of programmers to build successful careers.<p>What this book covers:<p>Choosing a career path: generalist vs. specialist<p>What makes you a senior engineer?<p>How to deal with feeling like an impostor<p>How to build trust and work with your manager<p>How to recover when you make a mistake, and what to do during incidents<p>How to ask better questions<p>How to read and understand unfamiliar code<p>How to add value to your team and company<p>How to identify and manage risk<p>How to deliver better results<p>How to communicate more effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences<p>The importance of a healthy work-life balance<p>How to ask for a promotion, and how to prepare for it<p>I wrote this book because these soft-skills are rarely taught in coding bootcamps or computer science degrees, yet they are critical to every programmer’s career trajectory. Almost every programmer I know, including me, had to learn and develop these soft-skills on the job. It took hard work and a lot of trial and error to learn how to communicate my ideas effectively, navigate office politics, manage risk, and so many other things that programmers encounter in their jobs today.<p>Get instant lifetime access at holloway.com. Use this link for a launch discount:<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.holloway.com/b/junior-to-senior?vip_code=JTSLAUNCH" rel="nofollow">https://www.holloway.com/b/junior-to-senior?vip_code=JTSLAUN...</a>
Congrats! I wrote my own book on a similar topic (link to site in my profile) and I can say without question it was one of my top 5 proudest professional moments. Books are a big deal.<p>And we need more on this topic to help more developers get better at building software faster. (The tech is part of that, but so is the communication.)<p>So, again, congrats!
I am actually looking for something just like this, I would have bought it right now, if there was a download option. Any chance of getting that enabled, seems like holloway supports it.
Fantastic, just ordered a copy!<p>I would be interested to know how you found self-publication? What did you use to write it, and where did you market it apart from HN?<p>How many are you hoping to sell?
Congratulations on the book! I think we need more books like this.
Recently on YT, I have been watching more and more videos on the subject. Most of them target beginners (which is fine) but few talk about what comes next. So your book is very welcome.
A junior engineer reads an API to do what they need to do.<p>A senior reads an API to figure out what can be done.<p>That there one the major differences between he two.
I've read the free preview on the different meanings of what is a senior engineer, and I have to say I'm not convinced.<p>"Years of experience" VS "Technical ability" is at best reductive, at worst completely wrong.<p>I encourage you to look at large companies and how the levels are defined (<a href="https://www.levels.fyi/blog/amazon-leveling-progress.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.levels.fyi/blog/amazon-leveling-progress.html</a> here for example, for Amazon) and the nuance that there is.<p>The different parts you cover are commendable ("How to build trust and work with your manager", "How to ask better questions", etc.), but they are bare minimum requirements for an engineer that has a couple of years of experience, they're not what is needed to reach the senior software engineer level.<p>Junior to not Junior anymore? Sure. Junior to Senior? I don't see it.