Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track

As someone who has been working as a Staff Engineer for several years, this book answered several important questions I had about my role and expectations. Moreover, it clarified things that I've observed (about operating at Staff level), that I didn't understand until now.I wish I have read this book sooner, earlier in my career. FYI, I have both the print and Audible versions.This is not a book about engineering management, and it is not about coding or project management. If that's the mindset you are coming from, this book will disappoint.If you are interested in knowing what comes after a Senior engineering level (whether you are a senior or junior developer), and how to operate at that level and beyond, this is the book for you.There's a certain "filtering" that comes with this topic since engineering positions that come after Senior-levels only occur in mature companies that 1) are sufficiently large, 2) are product or service oriented (not limited to web/IT support to other businesses) and 3) are likely to have substantial IP and patents.I would still recommend this book even for engineers working at firms to do match these criteria, since it covers significant material on how to operate efficiently as a team lead.

One of the few books I have read that start to talk about the indeterministic role of Staff Software engineers. Not a silver bullet, but at least gives a few places to start your journey or at least smooth it out a little.

Great book for someone considering the path into staff engineer!

I’m sure you get this from a lot of readers. Please add my thanks to the long list and know it is very heartfelt. The collection of interviews were very diverse, and truly helped me see various ways the Staff Engineer role can be viewed in various places. I wish I had read them first perhaps I’d have spent less than 3 months completing the book. It was quite hard getting through the initial chapters. Suggestion: print as 2 different books and keep the interviews rolling in! I’m definitely recommending this!!

very comprehensive, well researched book that has guided a generation of senior and staff engineer. as a senior manager, it guides me how to approach and manage my senior IC better

This books consists of two parts, the author's mind flow and stories of the success.It was really tedious to read for me the first part since there are just isolated paragraphs. I was waiting for some sort of the narrative development, but no, every new chapter is something completely different without full elaboration, like notesThe second part is stories of the “Staff Engineers”, almost all of them follow the same path: join the startup at early stage, spend n-years, take over the expertise, get promoted, and do mentoring and make sure you have a network outside and inside the company. Don’t forget about the Inclusion, it is very important. Nothing about real challenges, tough decisions, burnouts, conflicts, billing dollars impacts. These interviews were recorded during the begining of the COVID-19, so I would like to read it in the 23/24 realities.On a good side, the authors mentions archetypes and does explain how they operate, give an overview of the scope of the Staff+ role scopes and responsibilities. In general, it is good motivation book for anyone who are in the early carries and wants to stay on the engineering path up to the CTO

As an staff engineer myself, having an external perspective of what does the role entitles in other organizations has been tremendously valuable. Some of the guides or initial chapters are very practical but I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the experiences of some of my colleagues in other companies.Highly recommended to anyone looking beginning a staff engineer or to someone that wants to check areas of personal growth

So many golden tidbits, buy the book 📕