Get In, Get Along, Get Ahead: Starting Your Software Engineering Career

This book is about the practical experience of pursuing a career in software engineering—not about software engineering itself. Because all your knowledge of how to write code, solve interview questions, and design systems won't help you answer questions like, "How should I choose my first team?" "How do I negotiate my compensation?" and "How do I get promoted?"

You've come to engineering because you have a professional skill to practice at your job, but you're expected to learn that "job" part on the fly. That's why this book is structured to provide on-the-fly help: every chapter is about a major component of the engineering career. You could read this book cover-to-cover and pick up the general themes, or you could dive into specific chapters for the next big hurdle you're facing at work. Preparing for a new job? Read "Choosing Companies & Teams" and "Onboarding." Getting your first performance rating from your manager? Read "Performance Reviews." Going for promotion? There's a chapter named after that.

What's Inside?

Part 1: Get In
Chapter 1: Job Ladders
Chapter 2. Compensation & Offer Letters
Chapter 3. Choosing Companies & Teams

Part 2: Get Along
Chapter 4. Onboarding
Chapter 5. Code Review & Design Review
Chapter 6. Outages & PostmortemsPart 3: Get Ahead
Chapter 7. Performance Reviews
Chapter 8. Promotion