from Hacker News

Show HN: My book for programmers called “Junior to Senior” was published today

by dglass on 10/11/22, 3:18 PM with 38 comments

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].

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.

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.

What this book covers:

Choosing a career path: generalist vs. specialist

What makes you a senior engineer?

How to deal with feeling like an impostor

How to build trust and work with your manager

How to recover when you make a mistake, and what to do during incidents

How to ask better questions

How to read and understand unfamiliar code

How to add value to your team and company

How to identify and manage risk

How to deliver better results

How to communicate more effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences

The importance of a healthy work-life balance

How to ask for a promotion, and how to prepare for it

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.

Get instant lifetime access at holloway.com. Use this link for a launch discount:

[0]: https://www.holloway.com/b/junior-to-senior?vip_code=JTSLAUN...

  • by mooreds on 10/11/22, 3:52 PM

    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.

    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.)

    So, again, congrats!

  • by gtirloni on 10/11/22, 4:28 PM

    Holloway seems to support downloads but this book doesn't have that option. Is that intentional?

  • by WarChortle on 10/11/22, 4:46 PM

    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.

  • by Simon_O_Rourke on 10/11/22, 6:47 PM

    Fantastic, just ordered a copy!

    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?

    How many are you hoping to sell?

  • by swyx on 10/11/22, 6:53 PM

    congrats on shipping, OP. i also wrote a jr to sr book and it was one of the most rewarding things i've ever done. good luck!

  • by ArcMex on 10/11/22, 3:29 PM

    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.

  • by labarilem on 10/11/22, 4:39 PM

    Congrats on the book! Glad you're sharing what you learned during your career.

  • by redleggedfrog on 10/11/22, 8:28 PM

    Honestly, that list above has lots of things Seniors probably could brush up on.

  • by reidjs on 10/11/22, 4:28 PM

    Is there a kindle version?

  • by mattcristal on 10/12/22, 1:03 PM

    It looks very good!

    Once the Kindle version will be available I will buy it!

  • by dashtiarian on 10/13/22, 6:35 AM

    Now this, is a book I'm willing to hoop around US sanctions and then fight Iran's internet filtering to read. Thank you.

  • by manv1 on 10/12/22, 5:08 PM

    A junior engineer reads an API to do what they need to do.

    A senior reads an API to figure out what can be done.

    That there one the major differences between he two.

  • by thedangler on 10/11/22, 9:03 PM

    Out of curiosity, how much does holloway.com take from each sale? Are you allowed to sell digital or physical copies yourself?

  • by oidar on 10/11/22, 5:48 PM

    How can I read this offline? Doesn't seem to be a way to load it on my kindle or laptop. Is there a PDF?

  • by luisegr149 on 10/11/22, 6:40 PM

    Any plans for a phisical print in the future?, I do enjoy reading a real book more than a digital one

  • by iLoveOncall on 10/11/22, 4:44 PM

    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.

    "Years of experience" VS "Technical ability" is at best reductive, at worst completely wrong.

    I encourage you to look at large companies and how the levels are defined (https://www.levels.fyi/blog/amazon-leveling-progress.html here for example, for Amazon) and the nuance that there is.

    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.

    Junior to not Junior anymore? Sure. Junior to Senior? I don't see it.