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John Sonmez

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The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide: How to Learn Your Next Programming Language, Ace Your Programming Interview, and Land The Coding Job Of Your Dreams Kindle Edition

by John Sonmez (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 1,231 ratings

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Developer careers are tough…

…and few know the secrets to land top jobs.

Why isn’t talent enough?

John Sonmez discovered that technical knowledge alone isn't enough to break through to the
next income level - developers need "soft skills" like the ability to learn new technologies,
communicate clearly with management and consulting clients, negotiate the best rate, and unite
teammates in working toward a common goal.

Nobody teaches these soft skills.

This guide contains strategies for everyone from Entry-Level to Senior Developers and gives
guidance for Brand New Developers as well.

You’ll learn how to:

Find and Fill the Gaps in your Technical Knowledge
Choose between Contract Work or a Salaried Position
Which Should you Learn First - JavaScript, C#, Python, C++?
Get a College Degree with Maximum Credibility and Minimum Debt
Decide if a Coding Bootcamp is a Value or a Scam.
Plus, much more…

This book will take you inside the recruiting industry. What that "friendly" recruiter really wants
from you, how they get paid, and how to avoid getting pigeonholed into a job you'll hate.

It will change your career.

You’ll love this insider’s manual to success, because the difference between the MVPs and the
code monkeys is knowing how to manage the skills nobody mentions.

Get it now.

Review

Not Just For Beginners--Guaranteed To Make You A Better Developer

When I first started reading this book I was skeptical. When I saw chapter titles like "Dealing with Coworkers" or "How to Dress" I thought the book would only be for beginners. After reading it I changed my mind. Not only is this book great for beginners, it is also great for experienced developers. Even if you have tons of experience, it will "tell" you what you know in a way that will make you want to act. I think the advice in this book is guaranteed to make you a better developer and more importantly, a better person.

Rui Figueiredo
Software Developer and Computer Science PhD
Dublin, Ireland

Deals With The Human Side Of Software Development

This book is different from all other software development books I have read because it deals with the human side of software development. Even though as software developers we are surrounded with the latest technology, we are still people with feelings, fears and dreams, and John's book focuses on that. Software development is a real
challenge to master, but thanks to John's friendly tone and informal writing style, it's never been easier to understand--even if you don't have a technical background.

Cosmin Pupăză
Software Developer, Programming Apprentice
Bucharest, Romania

I Wish I Had This When I Started My Career

I can testify that this book is a must-read.

And preferably a first read for anyone seeking to enter the software industry. Or learn programming. Or decide if they want to learn it.

I wish I could've read it in the beginning of my career--I would not have lost so much time and effort as I did.

Oleksii Fedorov
Senior Software Engineer, Pivotal
Berlin, Germany

I Would Have Avoided Years Of Wasted Time

The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide is a great resource that I wish that I had years earlier in my career and in my education.

The insights in this book would have helped me to avoid years of wasted time with an unfocused education and an unfocused career.

Aaron Thomas
Software Engineering Consultant & Co-Founder, Enovi LLC
Henderson, NV

The Advice I Need To Take My Career To The Next Level

John has such a down-to-earth style of writing, that I feel like he's talking directly to me. All of his advice is dead on.

The chapter on dressing for success in particular provides unique and valuable advice. His concept of "being a contradiction" makes so much sense.

The entire book is filled with great advice but that one chapter right there is the advice that I need to follow to take my career to the next level.

Fernando Z.
Senior Software Developer, Blogger and Programming Fanatic
Central Texas

Get It Even If You're NOT In Software Development

Invaluable advice for any software developer, from entry-level to senior. Honest, no BS advice. Easy-to-understand, accessible, and comedic writing style.

So good, you may want to get it even if you AREN'T in software development.

Brandon Chun
Prototyping Engineer
Syracuse, NY

Made Me Feel More Experienced And Knowledgeable

Every university, course, coding bootcamp, etc. should encourage future developers to read this book.

John's style of writing is captivating and I definitely felt wiser after reading it.

It gave me a more vivid picture of the software industry, made me rethink some of my choices, but most importantly, it filled in some gaps, instantly making me feel more experienced and knowledgeable.

Dimitris Loukas
Software Engineer
Athens, Greece

I'm 15 Years Old, Learning Fast and Crushing Obstacles

I'm a 15 year old high school student from Szeged, Hungary. After I read John's advice on technologies and how to learn them, I was able to have a well-rounded conversation with a CEO of a coding company. He was impressed and invited me to his company to learn coding. I am getting taught about different languages and stacks. It is hard as hell but with the learning process I read about in this book I crush the obstacles. I no longer prepare for learning for weeks and months. I developed a learning pace and it is beyond what I thought I was capable of.

Norbert Hajagos
High School Student
Szeged, Hungary

About the Author

John Sonmez is a software developer and the author of two bestselling books, The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide and Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual. He's also the founder of the Simple Programmer blog and YouTube channel, where he reaches 1.4 million software developers yearly and helps them develop the unique blend of skills that made him a highly paid, highly sought-after developer and consultant. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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798 pages
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Publication date

July 11, 2017
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1444 KB
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

The best resource, at the time of this writing at least, is by far Gayle Laakmann McDowell’s excellent book, Cracking the Coding Interview.
Highlighted by 947 Kindle readers
Programming today is more about knowing how to use libraries and frameworks than being an absolute expert in the language.
Highlighted by 761 Kindle readers

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B073X6GNJ1
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simple Programmer (July 11, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 11, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1444 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 798 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #199,301 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #23 in Web Programming
- #61 in Job Hunting (Kindle Store)
- #78 in Software Development (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 1,231 ratings

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John Sonmez

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John Sonmez is a software developer and the author of two best-selling books, The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide and Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual.

He's also the founder of the Simple Programmer blog and YouTube channel, where he reaches 1.4 million software developers yearly with a central message:

Technical skills alone aren't enough for a successful career—or life.

By focusing on "soft skills" like the ability to communicate clearly and lead by example, the mental resilience to bounce back from failure and even an improved level of personal fitness, software developers can break through the "glass ceiling" and enjoy extraordinary success.

John learned these lessons himself the hard way—through trial and error over his 17+ year career as a developer—and he's candid about the fits and starts he struggled through during those early years.

John started his software development career at age 10, hacking C and C++ to create virtual worlds for his favorite MUDs.

When John landed a coveted six-figure Silicon Beach job at age 19, he thought his career was set.

In reality he was only set up for years of frustration and disappointment—from getting "laid off" from that cushy job after underwhelming his boss with his C++ skills, to a spectacular implosion during an intense onsite interview with Microsoft, to finally taking a job outside of programming just to pay the bills.

Eventually though John realized that there's a huge difference between knowing how to program and having all the skills to be a successful, professional software developer—and he set out to develop the technical, leadership and communication skills he lacked.

John went on to become a highly paid consultant in test automation and Agile methodology, and the 55 courses he published with the technical education powerhouse PluralSight makes him one of the most prolific online trainers in the field of software development.

John effectively retired at 32 and moved to San Diego.

Today he focuses his energy on helping other developers achieve the success they desire through the videos, books and courses in his Simple Programmer platform.

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Anthony Wilson

So Much Information and Value Packed Into This Book

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2021

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First, let me tell you that I do not know this author and I have not been asked to write a review.
I was looking for information on careers in Software Development and there just aren't that many out there.
I came across this book and read the reviews (much like you are doing now) and saw that there were a few negative comments.

I honestly do not understand how anyone could say anything bad about this book.

It's PACKED with information on absolutely every aspect of the Software Developer career. Seriously. This book is PACKED. We have all bought and read books that were nothing but fluff. This is NOT that book. John obviously took the time to write this book. Unlike some of the other books we download that were obviously written over a weekend and were never proof read. This book is solid. It is also quite large.

Now you may haver seen where someone complained that John put a space between sentences. They claim that it was done to make the book appear longer. Let me tell you that not only does the author know how to write, having the the content spaced the way had did makes the digital version of this book easier to read on my device.

Adding the spacing the way that he did may make the page count higher, but that is really irrelevant as the word count is still huge and the content is amazingly valuable.

One comment complained that the author is including links to his other books/blogs/etc. I say GOOD. I'm glad that he included these FREE additional items for me. I can choose to click or ignore, but I have seen the information these links have taken me to and am grateful that he has included them. These value added items are a great addition to the book. Once you read through the book and ask yourself "What Next" you have additional resources from these links. Use them ... don't use them, that's your choice, but I'm glad to have them.

I was really impressed with this book. It is so jam packed with information that is written in an often humorous fashion. It has absolutely provided me with the information that I sought.

Once again, I am no way being coerced, bribed, tortured or manipulated in writing this review. You can click on my name and see the other reviews that I have left on Amazon over the years. I'm just so impressed with this book and how it has answered every question that I had about this career and many that I didn't even know to ask.

John,
Thanks for a great read. Keep up the great work and look for me on you blog.

~ Tony Wilson

8 people found this helpful

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Steve Lewis

BEST CAREER GUIDE FOR DEVELOPERS PERIOD

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2017

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Because this book is so huge, I wanted to give an in depth review so anyone looking at this would be able to make an informed decision about buying it.

First off, this book is the missing manual you've been looking for in a software career. That probably sounds a little bold, but it really does walk you through from beginning to end, soup to nuts, how to start and advance your career.

Second, If you follow John on Youtube, he does cover a lot of the same topics, BUT not in the same way or in the same fashion. Now, you're probably asking yourself what I mean by that. Well, while John's videos are great, they tend to be one offs, while the book really is a guide where everything is connected and you can use it to create a really solid career plan.

Okay, so you're probably wondering what's in the book and what specifically it covers and how can it possibly live up to what I've just said.

There are five main sections of the book:

1) Getting Started As A Software Developer - This section covers how to choose you first language; deciding what's best for you: college vs a bootcamp vs teaching yourself, and how best to go about all three.

2) Getting a Job- This section covers the many varied ways to find a job in the industry, how to actually get a developer job even if you don't have any experience, and how to switch from another career-technical or otherwise-to become a software developer.

3) What You Need to Know About Software Development-here John walks you through all of the different career options for developers, including the pros and cons of each (Spoiler Alert: Even though it sounds like working in video games would amazing, there definitely are some cons. Big ones. Definitely check that section out.), and how to deal with recruiters. Yes, I know some of you just shuttered. It's okay John walks you through the process of working with a recruiter and helps you to avoid getting taken advantage of or get misled.

4) Working as a Developer- In this Section John goes over some of the career guide standards like work/life and getting a raise or promotion, BUT he also covers some really important things like how to work with QA so that you're not fighting with all the time. You'll probably still fight with them some of the time, but nobody's a miracle worker.

5) Advancing Your Career - Here John covers one of the areas most overlooked by developers: Self promotion. Most developers aren't too keen on this area and feel like their skills should speak for themselves. John shows how this isn't usually the case and shows you how to promote yourself without feeling fake or scammy. You might actually like doing it. Yes, shocking, I know.

All in all, this is probably the best career guide I've ever seen for developers. It's in depth, entertaining, and actually useful. Personally, I tend to feel like a lot, if not most, career books tend to be ra ra nonsense filled with stuff that most people already know. That wasn't the case with this book and I feel like I got my money's worth.

37 people found this helpful

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Sam Harper

A fluffy book, but still worth it

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

By "fluffy," I mean there's a LOT of white space in this book. The author doesn't appear to believe in paragraphs. Instead, he'll write one sentence, skip two lines, and write the next sentence. He does this throughout the book. Sometimes, he'll just write one word, skip two lines, and write the next word. He appears to do this for dramatic effect, like when people say, "I. Did. Not." So don't be fooled by the big thick nature of this book. That's an illusion. The book could probably be a quarter of the size if he wrote like a normal person.

Another annoying thing about the book is that he randomly bolds sections of the text. It's like he's trying to do the reader's highlighting for them, but his choice of what to bold seems a bit random. Plus, there's so much bolding that it becomes pretty pointless. It lessens somewhat as the book progresses, though. Either that or I just stopped noticing as much.

The book is really one big ad for the products and services the author offers on his web page. There are copious links on every page to something the author is selling. He admits as much early in the book.

Besides those complaints, I thought the book was wonderful. It covers just about every topic you can imagine that's relevant to somebody who might want a career in software development and even goes into things you might not even think you needed to know. Some of the information in the book is applicable in jobs outside of software development, like how to negotiate salary and how to deal with difficult bosses and co-workers. So in spite of my criticisms, I highly recommend this book. I think it would be foolish for anybody interested in software development not to read it.

One person found this helpful

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ToSamJa

Excellent book

Reviewed in Germany on May 10, 2023

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I like this book.
John gives really great advices, which helps me a lot.
The book is wetten on very simple way and it is easytounderstand. All useful topics are in book.
I like to call this book my career Bible.

Cliente de Amazon

Amazing book

Reviewed in Mexico on August 17, 2017

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This book is really good, it have a lot of useful tips and things to take care that you can't imagine. I really recommend you this book event if you are not a software developer.

3 people found this helpful

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Cale MacDonald

Your pocket sized software developer life coach

Reviewed in Canada on July 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

Another fantastic product from John. If you were blown away by how much detail was in his previous publication “Soft Skills: The software developer’s life manual” prepare yourself for hurricane strength winds.

This book helps bridge gaps for anyone who is or is looking to get into software development. The book is logically setup into 5 main sections: getting started as a software developer, getting a job, what you need to know about software development, working as a developer and finally advancing your career.

Getting started as a software developer is the first chapter of this massive almost 800 page book. This section addresses questions that seem daunting to new developers, such as how to choose your first language, should you do a boot camp or teach yourself. Even if your not a beginner, this section has some great advice especially if you are mentoring new or growing developers.

The next section progresses after you have started learning and are ready to venture into the industry. John addresses points such as how to find a job in this diverse economy, how to switch from a different career path as well as the contracting vs salaried question.

Section three and four cover most of the A-Z requirements of working in the software development field. Topics such as source control, debugging, maintaining code are all covered in section three. Section four deals more with the people aspect of working in software development. How to setup a good work / life balance, while setting yourself up for success. Even a seasoned developer can learn something from these chapters, as first impressions are usually the lasting ones.

The final section deals with advancing your career though methods such as blogging, networking and even speaking at conferences.

Although a lot of this material has been covered by John by way of his blog, youtube or his previous publication it is really nice having all this information quickly accessible (and mobile; if you have the kindle version) manner. I eagerly look forward to the audio book as John always provides some quality asides.

One person found this helpful

thiagoponte

Got to a point and got stuck? This book will help you unstuck once and for all!

Reviewed in Brazil on July 20, 2017

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It will teach you about getting a job, whether you have experience or not.
Then you can goes through several software development types like web development, mobile, Back-end and many others.
It also helps you understand tasks that are no coding, but everyone involved in programming in general must know like methodologies, testing, debugging, source control.
Oh man o wish i had this book available when i started into the programming world 8 years ago...
And i'm not even done here!
The book has has whole section as how to approach being a software developer, with chapters about work/life balance, teammates, getting a raise, how to dress and a really important one to all the women in the Tech world.
The last section is all about how to advance in your career.
It goes on talking about how to keep your skills up to date, the importance of creating a blog has on your reputation...
Go check it out.

One person found this helpful

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Guillaume Attard

Principles for developers, guideline for success.

Reviewed in France on July 27, 2017

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If you want to succeed in life, whether you're an IT engineer or anyone else, you have to build a solid foundation and shape your thinking around principles. To me this book brings you just that. It's kind of Ray Dalio's book "Principles" but applied to the IT field (although a lot of those principles can be applied to anyone) and presented in a very practical way, from starting in the industry, get a job to building your career, your network, your brand and creating a business. Everything is straight to the point and simply explained. Up to you to take action after reading that book. But at least you won't have the excuse of not knowing what to do.

This book is huge and contains a lots of information. Each sections feels like a whole book in itself, so for the price and the great info you get, it's a great value.

Being in the IT world myself, I found the most value in the last two sections. I already pointed out my weaknesses and stuff I need to work on. I will start from that book to take action and improving myself and build my career.

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