The Software engineering Guidebook
Lately, I had to reflect on my career orientation and objectives. I asked my network for a book recommendation on my career. Keven Larcheveque recommended The Software Engineer Guide book by Gergely Orosz. After reading the book, I’m surprised a book can contain so many insights. Most of the ideas covered in the book are simple but I’ve never seen them explicitly listed.
I learned so much just by reading part 1. It should be taught to any professional. Here are some of the highlights:
- You are in charge of your career, own it. People around you will help, but you have to lead.
- Document your work. Build a work log of your accomplishments, write in it daily, and review it weekly. This is the base for your performance review, resume update, and promotion campaign.
- Get to know the business: understand what matters to the company and how impact is measured. Ask questions and determine the key metrics. Your work should improve these indicators. Align your goal with the organization’s objectives.
- Build connections outside your team: work with your product manager but talk with your customer and other specialists. This will help you understand their need and propose valuable initiatives. It will speed up discussion and make development faster.
- Share your work with your manager, colleagues, other teams, and outside work if possible. It’s a great way to build relationships, gather feedback, and reduce duplication of labor.
- Above all, ask for feedback. Precise and actionable feedback. Criticism is great to identify areas to improve, Positive feedback looks amazing on your performance review.
It might seem obvious but having those ideas written down is very helpful. I’ve done most of those things with diverse degrees of consistency but now I have a good reference.