The Standout Developer

by Randall Kanna

A Complete Guide For Developers on Job Hunting, Acing the Interview and Landing the Job

Trying to land a high paying job in tech? Want companies reaching out to you?

Job hunting as a developer is stressful. Dozens of people apply for the same job and you're competing with CS grads and people with years of experience.

I remember applying endlessly for jobs when I started out and companies sending me rejection letter after rejection letter. And that was if the company even replied at all.

If you're tired of the endless job search and feeling like your resume isn't being seen, this book will help you craft a great resume that stands out and get it seen by the companies you want. I'll share how I got companies like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn reaching out to me by creating an online presence.

If you're struggling with technical interviews, my book will share how I prepare for algorithm interviews, how to create a study schedule, my secrets to the coding take-home challenge, and more.

You'll learn how to create a powerful blog, speak at a conference, negotiate and evaluate offers. And much more.

Genres: Technology, Computer Science

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Jack Domleo · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a beginner living in the USA, this would be a good book to read and take notes from. However, for me, a mid-level developer living in the UK, this was very hard to read. The fact I'm a mid-level developer doesn't affect my rating, I rated based on the content and advice in the book. The book for me was too definitive. What I mean is sentences were phrased, "If you do this, then this is guaranteed," and I'm not sure this is too great. I strongly believe this is an opinionated advice book which has unfortunately been written as a factual book with no evidence that the advice proposed has reproducible or repeatable results on everyone.

[Ghadeer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had some great advice and resources.

[Jess Crees · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good resource for junior to mid-level developers on how to stand out from the crowd.

Most of the book is aimed at getting a job and provides very good advice on how to do so.

I was particularly interested in the first sections about building an online presence and I enjoyed the non-growth hacking method described in the book. It felt a lot more real than some of the aggressive online branding material out there.

[Nicolas Cuervo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very informative book with easy-to-follow steps into adding value to the career of a junior developer. As for other reviewers, for me, it was also most interesting the part of increasing the online presence and creating a portfolio of projects that show your skills. However, being a mid-level engineer/developer I can relate to the described processes and can only continue recommending this book for those who are just starting the job hunt.

Considering the public objective, the book delivers what promises. Probably not very interesting for a mid- to senior-developer, but still an entertaining read.

[Israel Fermín Montilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a senior software engineer, I didn’t get too much value out of it. I found value on the advice on social media and the interviews the author included. That being said, this is a book intended for early career engineers and developers without a CS degree, reading it from that perspective is the right approach if you are already an experienced software engineer, hence, the rating. It gives a lot of valuable advice for young engineers and people who wants to get into software development.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Common sense on glued up dead trees / dark pixels.

[Héctor Iván Patricio Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro es muy bueno si eres un desarrollador que está iniciando, como saliendo de la universidad o cambiando de carrera, pero tiene poco que aportar a desarrolladores con más experiencia. Además es un libro que relata las cosas desde un punto de vista bastante concreto y estrecho, dando algunas cosas por hecho acerca de la experiencia de todos los desarrolladores.

Lo que menos me gustó es que toda la información es bastante basada *solamente* en la experiencia de Randall. Dicho esto, hablemos de lo bueno.

Es bastante corto, por lo que te tomará poco tiempo leerlo. Además te da un vistazo de todos los pasos que las compañías que contratan desarrolladores te harán pasar, y te dará por lo menos un idea de que esperar, así como un la idea de cómo hacer un plan y motivación para empezar a atacar cada punto.

Además resalta algunas cosas que varios podemos no tener en cuenta, como por ejemplo, la importancia y conveniencia de conseguir autoridad en las redes sociales mediante contribuciones bien intencionadas y útiles.

En fin, es un libro que creo que alguien que está empezando y quiere hacer su carrera debería leer, tomar notas y empezar a poner manos a la obra. Para desarrolladores más avanzados también hay mensajes valiosos que hay que tomar con un grano de sal, pero que todos modos pueden ser motivadores.

[William Cantin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to get insights on being a standout dev in these moderns days.

Using social medias as a platform, creating your blog, finding gigs and job hunting tips.

As an intermediate dev myself, I got a lot of value from the book even if I thought it would be mainly tailored to juniors.

Totally recommended from Junior devs to Seniors!

[Vikram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good advice for branding and job hunting.

[Hoanh Le · Rating 3 out of 5]

quick read. most of the stuffs i already knew. the most valuable part in the book for me is how to leverage twitter

[Mohamed Yamani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light read. It has some solid advice, but nothing grand. Still great.

I don't recommend spending more than a day reading this book, it's not worth it.