Staff Engineer

Leadership Beyond the Management Track

De: Will Larson

Narrado por: Shaula Evans

At most technology companies, you'll reach Senior software engineer, the career level for software engineers, in five to eight years. At the career level, your company's career ladder won't require that you work towards the next promotion; being promoted further is an exception rather than expected. This is also when many engineers are first given an opportunity to move into engineering management.

Over the past few years, we've seen a flurry of books unlocking the engineering management career path, like Camille Fournier's The Manager's Path, Julie Zhuo's The Making of a Manager, Lara Hogan's Resilient Management, and even my own An Elegant Puzzle. The engineering management career isn't an easy one, but there are maps available to help navigate it. What if you want to advance your career without becoming an engineering manager? The technical leadership path remains relatively undocumented, hard to navigate, and inconsistent across companies. Staff Engineer is your guide to building your career towards a staff engineering role, receiving the title, and succeeding within the role.

©2021 Will Larson (P)2022 Will Larson

Too much repeated info

It’s ok. A lot of repeated information and so it sometimes feels like having hit the back button when you haven’t. Multiple readers would have helped as there is lots on interviews in the last half of the book that feel kind of static with a single voice.

This is the way to get the next level in tech

I wasn't sure that there was an alternative to manager in tech roles, but this book gave me the lights to pursue a career with future, again, outside of managerial.

As engineer in general, we're told to do the hard things and get promoted. What if the promotion you're looking for is not related to manage, you want to stay in tech roles but don't know how or what roles is beyond seniority.

This book will clear our minds in terms of what and how looking for the next steps in tech roles. Stuff+ engineering roles are key in organizations, don't fooll yourself if your still want to groth outside seniority. Every chapters seemed to me a precious advice in terms of how and wath to do exactly to get your next role in tech.

Finally, the interviews were awesome too. Each experience contributed me as much as the chapters topic. Hope the next gen of stuff+ engineering roles will benefit from this book.

started out great

It started out great but as the other reviews mention, it gets very repetitive, especially the interview sections.

Amalgamation of Stories

Informative guidance was brief and more than half was spent on pursuance of the title. Not what I expected, but that may have just been different from my expectations. Stories carried value but ended up being repetitive; appreciated nonetheless.

Useful and unique material, could be condensed more

I found parts of the book quite repetitive. However it is a unique resource in the field and it deserves credit for that. Definitely recommend it to folks who think they might need to hear more about others who’ve reached senior IC levels.

Great content but some audio issues

The content is excellent and I don’t think there is another book out there like this. The only negative thing is that there are a few recording issues where the recording sounds like it got cut early and skipped. One chapter doesn’t even finish. Nevertheless, I still feel like I got a lot of value out of the book and would recommend buying it. If these issues get fixed, I will update my review.

Amazing content, but not for an audiobook format

Fantastic book, I picked up a physical copy I've been much better able to absorb. As for the audiobook, the narrator speaks far too quickly. I find that I'm playing the book at 90% speed, and rewinding and listening to most parts 2 to 4 times before I'm able to mentally grok what is being said.

I'm convinced that this is a book you need a physical copy of to really absorb properly, actually reading with my eyes has been a much better experience

Hugely informative

As someone who found themselves in a principal role possibly by virtue of being somewhere so long and not ever knowing what my job actually was, what the expectations where, or who I was supposed to be for others, this was the best information I’ve ever found. I’m still not sure who I’m supposed to be and don’t believe I’m worthy of the title given, but having a much better idea of what the words mean and what the expectations are at many other places at least gives me an idea of how to improve and get there. Thanks Will, this was a huge help to me.

Only touching the surface

The advice stays limited at the surface level. The author didn’t support their suggestions with real life or hypothetical examples.

The interviews with other Staff Engineers part was nice

Well narrated. Worth listening to it in audiobook format.

Ok

It explained 1) the different types and roles of a staff engineer, and 2) why almost only big companies (or very well funded ones) have staff engineers.

The content was a little bit shallow, the interviews (in the second part) were basically the book repeated with the perspective from staff engineers.

I guess it is ok, there is a lot of interesting points, but maybe not enough content for a complete book.