Tech Career Stories: From Frontend Developer to Principal Software Engineer

My journey is a bit of a bumpy one and full of learnings. I'm so grateful for the experience and the people that help me along the way.

I recently joined a European public company as a Lead Software Engineer. The role is part of the leadership model in the company with the responsibility of Principal Software Engineer and Senior Engineering Manager. It's as challenging as it sounds to shift from being an individual contributor to having a duo responsibility, but I was prepared. I want to share all the resources that have had a tremendous impact on my road to tech leadership with you.

My hope is that regardless of your background or where you are in your career, some of these resources here can help unblock you or offer you inspiration when you need them.

TL;DR

• 👯 Value relationships. Not just with others, but with yourself too.
• 🚀 Find your leadership style. It multiplies your impact.
• 🦄 Stay true to your craft. It's the cornerstone of your value proposition.

Valuing Relationships

Your relationship with yourself is as important, if not more, as your relationships with others.

After I found my center, I noticed a clarity to communicate authentically. It helps me discuss without arguing from ego, and provide candid feedback during 1:1s with my peers and talents. I'm able to form more meaningful relationships and communicate more effectively.

The books that help me understand myself

• The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness by Steve Peters
• Quiet by Susan Cain
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Grit by Angela Duckworth
• How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life by Bob Rotella, and Bob Cullen (Contributor)
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
• The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It by Kelly McGonigal

The books that help me stay consistent

• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• The Headspace Guide to Meditation & Mindfulness by Andy Puddicombe
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

The resources that help me stay consistent

• Huberman Lab
• Headspace

The books that help me form meaningful relationships with others

• The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness by Steve Peters
• Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Malone Scott
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
• 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Warner Klemp

Finding Your Style

It's important to think about your way of scaling your influence and impact.

I started off my leadership journey by helping a small but important project without a lead title. I took care of the tedious work no one wanted to do like organizing documentation, taking meeting minutes, and following up on actions. As I got more years under my belt, I was involved in bigger projects. More teams, higher stakes, longer time budgets, higher complexities. My focus turned to how to empower all parties involved to iterate and deliver, and at the same time be helpful in alignment on tech excellence.

Tech leadership is not one size fits all to me at all. I'm not the most outspoken engineer. I listen. I'm empathetic, thorough, and unwavering, and I believe my best work comes from solitude.

I have no doubt that you can be true to who you are and be an outstanding leader.

The books that help me find my leadership foundation

• 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Warner Klemp
• Quiet by Susan Cain
• No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer
• Discover Your True North by Bill George, David Gergen (Foreword)
• Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
• The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan
• Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
• Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan

Staying True to Craft

It’s clear to me that building a consistent product people love correlates with a company culture that values tech excellence. Ari Balogh, CTO at Airbnb, wrote the article “Commitment to Craft” and it captured my notion. I believe the pursuit of craft not only facilitates an individual’s lateral and vertical growth, but also equips a company’s economic growth.

Always learning😎

My curiosity took me on a wild ride in tech.

• I started out wanting to make beautiful websites, and now I’m building packages, release pipelines, API gateways and services, and CLI applications.
• I was trained to be a UX researcher, and now I’m doing performance monitoring and optimization, SEO, CDN deployments, and performance marketing.
• I was told that I wasn’t good enough, and now I’m mentoring, coaching, and sharing my learnings in the tech community.

Commit to your craft.

The resources about web architecture

• Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost? by Martin Fowler
• AirbnbEng: Commitment to Craft
• Domain Driven Design
• Netflix Tech Blog
• OSI Model by Cloudflare
• System Design Interview — An Insider’s Guide by Alex Xu
• Tech at trivago
• The Airbnb Tech Blog
• The System Design Primer
• Uber Engineering
•  by Martin Fowler
• Learning SEO — A Roadmap with Free Guides & Tools
• Akamai EdgeWorkers
• GitHub Actions
• Synthetic & Real User Monitoring Explained by Catchpoint
• How Netflix Scales its API with GraphQL Federation (Part 1) by Tejas Shikhare

The resources about programming languages

• JavaScript Allongé, the “Six” Edition by Reg “raganwald” Braithwaite
• TC39 Proposals
• V8
• The Rust Programming Language
• Learn Rust With Entirely Too Many Linked Lists
• Rust by Example

The resources about UI/UX

• 52 Weeks of UX
• Material Design
• WAI-ARIA basics

Final Thoughts

The potential in tech is limitless. Sometimes your journey might be tough, but don’t be discouraged. There is so much amazing wisdom in books and articles within your reach to help you accomplish your vision.

Let’s get it🚀

References

Books

• 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Warner Klemp
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
• Discover Your True North by Bill George, David Gergen (Foreword)
• Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
• Grit by Angela Duckworth
• How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life by Bob Rotella, and Bob Cullen (Contributor)
• Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
• No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser
• Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
• Quiet by Susan Cain
• Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Malone Scott
• The Rust Programming Language by Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols, with contributions from the Rust Community
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport
• System Design Interview — An Insider’s Guide by Alex Xu
• The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness by Steve Peters
• The Headspace Guide to Meditation & Mindfulness by Andy Puddicombe
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō
• The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
• The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha
• The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It by Kelly McGonigal
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

This article is originally posted on Daw-Chih’s website.