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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 1,229 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.

Length

798
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Language

EN
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Publication date

2017
July 11
File size

1.4 MB
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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

Editorial Reviews

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.

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: #146,104 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #17 in Web Programming
- #36 in Job Hunting (Kindle Store)
- #46 in Software Development (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 1,229 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

Helpful

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

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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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Top reviews from other countries

ToSamJa

Excellent book

Reviewed in Germany on May 10, 2023

Verified Purchase

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.

A Customer

A hustler's guide to software development

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

I'd give this book 3½ stars, if that were possible. I've rounded down to offset what I consider to be an inflated aggregate review score. I bought the Kindle version of this book for 99p on a promotion, and at that price it represents excellent value for money.

Since the second half of the book was more valuable to me than the first, I'll start with the negatives. Firstly, this book is extremely verbose, is written in the overly-casual style of a blog post (and with quite a few grammatical and semantic errors), and at around 200k words takes far too long to convey its message. Sonmez writes like he speaks and- to my mind- this comes across as distracting and unprofessional, at least when covering technical topics. He also employs a liberal dose of profanity, which I don't object to in itself, but I found that its overuse detracted from the book's tone.

Sonmez, by his own admission, is a hustler. He's of the opinion that one needn't be highly intelligent, or even of above average intelligence, in order to be a successful programmer. First off, let me state that I greatly admire John's work ethic, and he is clearly very successful. Nonetheless, I disagree strongly on the issue of requisite intellectual ability. Feel free to dismiss me as an intellectual snob, but to my mind, given that software development is both conceptually dense and requires a broad array of skills (and thus the ability to learn a lot rapidly), telling people of average intelligence that they can become a successful software engineer isn't particularly helpful.

The first half of the book provides a high-level overview of the software development industry, which should be fairly useful to noobs. I must admit I found myself cringing from time to time at some fairly dumbed-down explanations. If you're a developer or software engineer of any standing, there's little to learn from this part of the book, in my opinion. If you're new, however, this book does provide an excellent high-level perspective of the profession, albeit, as indicated, somewhat dumbed down in places.

By the end of the third section, I was somewhat regretting having purchased the book. It's easy to get the impression that John covers a lot of ground- he's certainly a prolific content creator- but without actually mastering all of the technical material (how can you, when you cover so much ground?)

To summarise my perspective on the the first three sections: If you're new to software development, or considering it as a career choice, there's a lot of valuable information here, even if it's presented more as a series of blog posts than a serious book. If you're a software engineer with even a couple of year's experience, I wouldn't waste time on it.

Sections 4 and 5 were- for me, at least- a different story.

Although I don't consider Sonmez to be a great technical brain (or even a half-decent writer), I really do appreciate his advice on the practical and social aspects of managing a career in software. Like a lot of software engineers, I'm much more book-smart than socially adept, and so I don't know instinctively how to deal well with certain issues such as office politics, toxic work environments, and conflicts with higher-ups, never mind the quagmire of gender-politics in the contemporary workplace. Sonmez's matter-of-fact approach to these issues is great, and I found his insights and tips very useful. I was glad to see that at no point does he sacrifice his integrity to the gods of political correctness. The first two words in his "Women in Tech" chapter made me laugh out loud.

A last point is that Sonmez is clearly widely read in the field of personal development. If you've had little exposure to the likes of Tony Robbins etc. you'll find plenty of valuable references in this book.

TDLR: If you're new to software development, or considering it as a career-choice, this is an excellent book, if you can stand the sloppy, verbose (and frequently plainly incorrect) writing style. There's also a lot of valuable, practical advice on how to manage your career. Certainly worth a read, though I wouldn't pay full price for it.

37 people found this helpful

Mr. K. Patel

A great deal of content

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

I like John, I've seen a fair few YouTube videos and read a few blog posts, and I applaud the way he has carved a niche out of teaching Software Developers life skills, rather than technical ones.
Whilst many other books out there that are essentially motivational books discuss similar concepts and get you just as riled up, it's refreshing to read one that is so intimately tied to the mythical world of Software Development.

The book is easy to read (he found 'his voice' after all), and despite being lengthy in content it doesn't actually take long as there's nothing particularly complicated to parse.

And that's the thing, at first I wondered why there wasn't more technical content, or at least more in depth content on gaps in most developers knowledge, but then I remembered the actual title of the book and it made perfect sense. Whilst a lot of time is spent focusing on the (very) high-level overview of the technical aspects, these sections are more for the complete novice than someone who is already a developer.

The book aims to give you a blueprint, a rough guide to how you could shape your career more effectively.
The reason John defers the in-depth details to authors of other books (all of which are great recommendations by the way) is because he is playing the role of a mentor.

Instead of hoarding the knowledge and what, to a lot of developers, appear to be 'secrets', he is lifting the lid and guiding you down a path that will ultimately, should you 'Take Action', lead you to becoming a better version of yourself, at least in your career.

Now of course I don't agree with everything that was said in the books, and I feel more could be said about the cutting-edge world of development, but I give this book 4 stars because there is nothing else like it (to my knowledge), and it really is a (mostly) Complete Software Developer's Career Guide.

One person found this helpful

James Murphy

If only I had a time machine...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2017

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I was going to post the heading "I wish I had this 10 years ago" but someone beat me to it. Thinking about it, I'd rather have a time machine with the critical knowledge I have now and armed with John's book. This book really is the missing manual.

I'll admit I've been a follower of John's work for 2 and a half years now after having read the fantastic book Soft Skills: A Developer's Life Manual. Ever since then I would argue having implemented some of his advice my career has gone from strength to strength. The greatest strengths in his writing is that it pumps you up and gets you motivated.

While I don't agree with everything John has said in the book I would say I agree with 98% of it. I have over 10 years experience working in the software industry and echo a lot of his thoughts in many different areas including his discussion around bootcamps and whether University education these days is really the right option. There's also a fantastic section on how to learn anything quickly. Given John has developed 55 different Pluralsight courses in a short space of time I'm fairly confident he knows what he's doing...

Some may argue that the advice given in this book crosses over with a lot of John's online material at SimpleProgrammer.com, however, if you want it all organised in an easily digestible format this is the book to purchase. It's absolutely worth it's weight in gold.

Following John's advice I've built numerous blogs, spoken at conferences (through invites), been invited to webinars and been approached to produce online content. I've also received a promotion, increased salary by more than 25% during this time. Whilst I can't put everything down to John, because ultimately the buck stops with you, I can attribute his books for kick-starting my career into overdrive.

If you're stuck in a dead-end job, want to transfer over to a promising career as a software developer or simply want to give your current career a bit of an adrenaline kick then buy this book.

15 people found this helpful

AJ

A sensible and deep reference book for the working man

Reviewed in Australia on October 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

John's brand is an extension of who he is: what you see is what you get and more often than not it's practical and useful. That certainly applies to the *Complete* Software Developer's Career Guide - emphasis on 'complete'. It's an incredible value packed book for someone who has never coded before to the seasoned developer. It's great for the working everyman as it's grounded and sensible.
He presents a much needed holistic approach to software development. Every course and book in their desire to be approachable - and lessen the learning curve - touch upon this piecemeal, but development isn't just coding. It's analysis, planning, setting up tests, coding using design patterns and best practices, there are security considerations, source control, testing, deployment. And all of this has to gel with your organisation's project management proclivities, whether they be Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Extreme, Just in time... the list goes on.
I was amazed to find a chapter on almost everything from gaining expertise to moving up when you've exhausted all conventional modes of promotion. There was even a meaningful chapter on 'Women in tech'. I expected it to be a throwaway chapter to check all boxes, but true to his style it was pragmatic and applicable.
The writing is conversational and approachable. There are few things he insists on and speaks as an equal that even a teenager would find persuasive. It's jam packed with knowledge that one accumulates over a lifetime. You get glimpse of this bigger picture when you speak to veterans and people with experience, but somehow John's managed to piece it together himself. Save your time and energy, instead of having 50 different conversations with people in the industry, try this book.
There is some light promotion throughout the book (links to his blog and ancillary product recommendations) that he acknowledges early on. In this day and age it's unreasonable to expect one's oeuvre to somehow not reference itself. And if you delve deeper you'll see why it's only an extension of what he preaches and quite fair.
I really recommend this book to beginners and if you feel you lack a roadmap for your career - this'll demystify what's next no matter where you are.

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