Skills of a Successful Software Engineer

by Fernando Doglio

Skills to grow from a solo coder into a productive member of a software development team, with seasoned advice on everything from refactoring to acing an interview.

In Skills of a Successful Software Engineer you will

    The skills you need to succeed on a software development team
    Best practices for writing maintainable code
    Testing and commenting code for others to read and use
    Refactoring code you didn’t write
    What to expect from a technical interview process
    How to be a tech leader
    Getting around gatekeeping in the tech community

Skills of a Successful Software Engineer is a best practices guide for succeeding on a software development team. The book reveals how to optimize both your code and your career, from achieving a good work-life balance to writing the kind of bug-free code delivered by pros. You’ll master essential skills that you might not have learned as a solo coder, including meaningful code commenting, unit testing, and using refactoring to speed up feature delivery. Timeless advice on acing interviews and setting yourself up for leadership will help you throughout your career. Crack open this one-of-a-kind guide, and you’ll soon be working in the professional manner that software managers expect.

About the technology
Success as a software engineer requires technical knowledge, flexibility, and a lot of persistence. Knowing how to work effectively with other developers can be the difference between a fulfilling career and getting stuck in a life-sucking rut. This brilliant book guides you through the essential skills you need to survive and thrive on a software engineering team.

About the book
Skills of a Successful Software Engineer presents techniques for working on software projects collaboratively. In it, you’ll build technical skills, such as writing simple code, effective testing, and refactoring, that are essential to creating software on a team. You’ll also explore soft skills like how to keep your knowledge up to date, interacting with your team leader, and even how to get a job you’ll love.

What's inside

    Best practices for writing and documenting maintainable code
    Testing and refactoring code you didn’t write
    What to expect in a technical interview
    How to thrive on a development team

About the reader
For working and aspiring software engineers.

About the author
Fernando Doglio has twenty years of experience in the software industry, where he has worked on everything from web development to big data.

Table of Contents
1 Becoming a successful software engineer
2 Writing code everyone can read
3 Unit delivering code that works
4 Refactoring existing code (or Refactoring doesn’t mean rewriting code)
5 Tackling the personal side of coding
6 Interviewing for your place on the team
7 Working as part of a team
8 Understanding team leadership

Genres: Programming, Nonfiction, Software

191 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 16, 2022

About the author

Technical writer, mainly focusing on Node.js and microservices architecture. Also working as a Technical Manager for BigData projects.

Reviews

[BabyLunLun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is mostly targetted towards a newcomer but I still get some nugget of wisdom from here. Mainly how important unit tests are and methods to refactor code. It also cover some social and communication aspects of the job which is also helpful. But this book is simply giving you a bird eye view of the job, it didn't cover everything in details so its still up to you to read up on all the details. It did give you a good starting point to what to learn next

[Mahmoud Shrif · Rating 5 out of 5]

واو الكتاب مفيييد جدا جدا لاي حد فريش او جونيور
استفدت جدا منوه وارشحوه بالتأكيد
تعريف بسيط وملخص لمحتوي الكتاب الرائع:
الفصل الاول بيتكلم عن ازاي تكون مبرمج ايه الي محتاجوه وايه الي مش محتاجوه
الفصل التاني بيتكلم عن how to write a clean code and what to do when you find a bug also give you a glimpse idea about Design Principles (SOLID , DRI , YAGNI , KISS) and you need to make your code work first then optimize and don't start by the optimize solution first.
زي ما قلت الفصل مختصر وبيديك فكرة عامة عن وجود حجاجات زي كده وانت دور وهتلاقي مصادر كتير
الفصل التالت بيتكلم عن ال Unit Testing and its important role in our SDLC.
it's an important chapter and don't write a damn thing without testing it well.
الفصل الرابع بيتكلم عن ال refactoring and how refactoring doesn't mean "Rewriting Code", it's MORE than that.
الفصل ده جامد جامد جامد
الفصل الخامس بيتكلم عن work-life balance and ,projects , how to learn and grow and communication with others.
الفصل السادس وده محبب جدا جدا ليا وهو عن ال interviews and what to say/do and what not. and how to choose
بجد عظمة
الفصل السابع بيتكلم عن عن how to be a good teammate and how to impress your manager and also how to improve (GREAT TIPS)
الفصل الخير بيتكلم عن ال Leaders and traits of leaders

كتاب جميييل جدا واعتقد هيكون مفيد اكتر ك مرجع وقت ما تحتاج حاجه تفتحوه وتشوف اي الي هيمشي معاك ويفيدك بتاء علي وضعك وتجربوه

[Nigel Thornton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good summary for a junior engineer.

[Tim Fothergill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A light read, with some practical examples and great topics. I've worked in a DevOps and Software Engineering capacity over the past four years, of which all of these lessons mimic my experiences and in some cases provide supplementary information around them.

Worth a read if you're experienced, but especially worthwhile if you're new to software engineering.

[MacBobby Chibuzor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is very suitable for beginners thinking to get started in software engineering. It explains both the technical and non-technical skills a junior software engineer needs to acquire to actually stand out in their career.

You can never go wrong with this book.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, easy to read and fully packed with useful advice and tips. Lot of tricks of the trade knowledge you won't find on any bootcamp or course.

[Canaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

wish i've found this earlier !
a must read for someone just starting out as it offers nuggets of wisdom and insight that would take some time to acquire normally.

[Jason Cain]

Very well put together, I found the information very helpful. It's a MUST READ type of book.

[Alterionisto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good advice for junior devs

[Michael Dominick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I 100% recommend this for new developers just starting out in their careers. It’s second to none and in many ways is the successor to Mike Gunderloy’s Coder To Developer.