Camille Fournier's roadmap for senior ICs, tech leads, and managers. Even individual contributors benefit from understanding team dynamics, career progression, and the transition from coding to leadership.

I picked up The Manager's Path when I was a senior IC considering whether to move into tech lead work. Fournier's chapter on the tech lead role—managing technical decisions without direct reports—was exactly what I needed. She breaks down each level from senior IC to VP, explaining what changes at each stage: how your time allocation shifts, what skills you need to develop, and what traps to avoid. The section on one-on-ones transformed how I approach those conversations, and her advice on handling difficult team members saved me from making several mistakes early on. Even if you never want to manage, the chapters on mentoring and giving feedback are worth the price. The book is practical without being prescriptive—she acknowledges that every team is different, but gives you frameworks to adapt. I've recommended it to three engineers who were struggling with the transition from senior IC to tech lead, and all of them said it helped them understand what they were signing up for.

Camille Fournier's roadmap for senior ICs, tech leads. Learn team dynamics, career progression, one-on-ones, and the transition from coding to leadership.

The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders and Managers

The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change

Tanya Reilly's guide to thinking and operating at staff-plus levels. Learn how to have impact without direct reports, influence architecture decisions, and navigate the transition from senior to staff engineer.

The Staff Engineer's Path is the book I wish existed when I was trying to figure out what staff engineers actually do. Reilly breaks down the role into concrete skills: technical leadership, navigating organizations, setting technical direction, and having impact without authority. The chapter on scope—how to think about problems that span multiple teams or systems—helped me understand why some engineers seem to have more impact than others. The section on writing technical proposals is gold: she shows how to structure arguments, gather feedback, and get buy-in for architectural changes. The book is practical without being prescriptive—she acknowledges that every company defines staff differently, but gives you frameworks to adapt. My only critique is that some sections assume you're at a large tech company, but the principles apply anywhere. I've recommended it to three senior engineers who were considering the staff track, and all of them said it clarified what the role actually entails. Essential reading for anyone trying to understand staff-plus engineering.

Tanya Reilly's guide to thinking and operating at staff-plus levels. Learn technical leadership, scope, and having impact without direct reports.

The Staff Engineer's Path: Guide for Staff-Plus Engineers

The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change

Practical advice for becoming an effective developer—from tooling and design to habits and career growth—in a modernized 20th anniversary edition.

Hunt and Thomas’ pragmatic maxims still show up in our team retrospectives: stone soup and boiled frogs, tracer bullets, orthogonality, ruthless automation. I revisit the 20th Anniversary edition every few years and hand it to new hires alongside the company handbook. The updated examples cover Git, CI/CD, and cloud tooling, yet the book still focuses on the instincts that make developers effective—communicate clearly, automate boring work, prototype early, own your career. Pair it with more specialized books for deep dives, but keep this as your north star for craft and professionalism.

The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey To Mastery 20th

The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey To Mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)

Hand-picked career growth tools and resources we actually use in production. Each item tested by developers, for developers.

Career Growth Products

The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change

The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change

The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey To Mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)