Shawn Swyx Wang - The Coding Career Handbook

The code will always be the easiest part of a coding career.

The more I talked to my friends about their careers, and the more I progressed in my own career, I increasingly realized that the non-code part of coding was both a hugely important, and under-discussed, topic. It is under-discussed because nobody else is as invested in your career as you are.

And so the idea for this book was born.

There are a lot of books teaching you specifics of frameworks and languages. There are a lot of books on quitting your job to do your own thing. There are a lot of books on becoming an engineering manager. This book is none of those. This is a book about getting coding jobs, and doing well at coding jobs.

That is an ambitious goal, which presents its own problems. Its scary writing a career advice book - Im just one person, and I havent made a career of coaching developers. I cant guarantee success, and you cant verify that everything I tell you is right. All I have is hundreds of hours of listening to peoples stories, and living my own. I have biases that make my situation different from yours - I am a US-based, Asian male web developer, seeing decent success after career change at age 30.

But I think the bar is very low. Ive met with developer career success advisors and read conventional career advice. You deserve a more intelligent discussion than fits in a 15 minute YouTube video or yet another Medium blog post. Thats why this is NOT going to be a conventional career advice book.

This is a linear discussion of Career Guides, followed by a nonlinear collection of Principles, Strategies, and Tactics - independent essays of ideas that you may or may not agree with, but are worth considering anyway. Please skim and skip. This book is a buffet, not a five course meal. You will see some repeated ideas, because the ideas are strongly interlinked. Unfortunately we cant normalize this; this book isnt a relational database!

I have designed this book to last. A typical Code Newbie to Senior Developer journey might take 4-8 years. I want you to discover the full context of everything Ive researched, with me as a guide rather than omniscient narrator. Ive embraced the digital format, and made heavy use of links to original sources. Feel free to pause at any chapter, go down those rabbit holes I lay out for you, and see for yourself. Dont try to read this book in one sitting.

My job here isnt to tell you things others already do. I will cover important points, but if other people do it better, I will simply link to them rather than regurgitate. My job is to introduce you to things you might take years to learn, and to honestly discuss this industry like an older brother who is just a few years ahead of you, acknowledging that what works for me might not work for you but giving advice anyway.

This book is a conversation starter, not a conversation ender. I am not an expert, this is not the final word on How to Make It in Tech. There are multiple ways to succeed at a coding career, and I cannot possibly cover them all. Consider me simply another companion on your own career journey.

With all that disclaimed, its time to have some Real Talk about your Coding Career.