Geek read: Staff+ engineering books.
My feelings after reading the most popular books about staff+ engineering. Trying to guide you which one you should read.
Intro
Some time ago I became a Principal Software Engineer at Ryanair. When I was promoted, I focused on settling into the role, driving innovation, working with the team and trying to reorganize my day-to-day responsibilities. What I found was that the promotion wasn’t revolutionary in terms of my responsibilities and the way I worked. My focus shifted a bit, but in general I started to get more and more responsibility.
According to those books many staff+ engineers seems to feel that way, as they are usually promoted organically.
I felt that I was not doing it 100% right (I still do and always will I guess) and that I could do it better. I wanted to learn how others do it and get some general guidance.
I have tried to find some good resources on this subject and have found that everyone recommends two books:
- The Staff Engineer’s Path by Tanya Reilly,
- Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track by Will Larson.
This is why I have decided to write short comparison of those 2 books and my general feelings about them.
General feeling
The Staff Engineer’s Path by Tanya Reilly
Both books are about 300 pages long, but I felt that Will Larson’s book was sooo much longer. When I finished, I wrote a post on LinkedIn about a book, which I have linked below, which was the first time that had happened to me. In terms of style, reading this book was a breeze and it was really well written, informative and funny. After finishing the book I felt inspired and motivated.
Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track by Will Larson
Book is divided into 2 parts. I don’t want to review them as a single piece.
The first part is a deep dive into the role itself, lots of good advice and it’s content written by the author. It is a really good read that I can recommend. There are a lot of common parts with Tanya’s book, but there is a lot of content that is really valuable and not mentioned in the other book. So I recommend reading the first part first, but...
The second part is a series of interviews with people in Staff+ roles. One hundred. Fifty. Pages. It’s way too long, but the number of interviews is not a problem here. After reading a few of them, you get the feeling that it’s always the same interview. The questions asked are the same to give a good comparison between different companies, which is really great to be able to compare, but it’s definitely not entertaining. I am a completionist and frankly I counted the pages until the end.
What I can learn?
What type of Staff Engineer are you?
No, it’s not a psycho test from a 90s magazine. Will Larson provides a taxonomy of archetypes: Tech Leads, Architects, Solvers, Right Hand. Each archetype is described with its usual responsibilities and strengths, as well as, its downsides.
What Staff Engineer do?
Authors deals with a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about the role itself. That’s not surprising. I’ve experienced it myself & it’s a common thing in most interviews. I think authors answer this question quite well, analyzing it based on many archetypes and giving a lot of insights.
Authors writes about things that sometimes it’s not just about what you could do MORE, but maybe you should do LESS and give up some things and focus on some areas.
Leadership guidance
Staff+ Engineer is a leadership role. To be successful you need a team. Highly successful Staff+ Engineers are the glue of their organization. You need to understand that it’s not just about you, so you need to give your team space and support. The next leaders will only grow if they have the space to do so. Support and listen. Give honest feedback.
Nothing is more stressful for a high performer than not knowing how they’re doing! If you don’t give feedback, especially about their best work, they’ll keep changing their approach until you do give feedback (often to your regret).
- Will Larson
Organizational capital
Both books give advice on how to be a good leader, but they also emphasize that you can’t forget about yourself. They provide guidance on how to build organizational and team capital, how to spend it, how not to waste it, and what to do when you are invited into “the room”. What kind of projects to work on. What you can do to build your network and share knowledge in your organization.
You are on yourself, pal
Loneliness that comes with staff+ roles, the expectations that come with it and the potential lack of a safety net when you become someone who has to make way more important decisions. It also means being visible and adding value. How can I do this better? What should I focus on? What should I do if I get the chance to do something big?
Managing projects
How to bootstrap a new project, how to set success criteria for it, how to define risks, roles, who should work on it, red flags and how to navigate problems once they have started. What if your project is at a really advanced stage, but it was a swing and a miss? What do you do next?
As I was going through Tanya’s book while writing this review, I felt I needed to read it again. Twice. It’s so good and I still have a lot to learn from her.
Navigating your organization
Understand your organization and see the bigger picture. What may be a bad decision for one organization may be the best possible decision for another. Align your goals and actions with the best interests of your customers and your organization. Understand where decisions are made, who you can support to make the best decisions and what you can do to strengthen your organization.
Staff+ Enginner is end of the road or… what next?
Books not only advise on sponsoring others, but also on finding a sponsor and improving your craft. They advise on the next steps in your career, using real-life examples and highlighting the pros and cons. It’s not just about leaving a job, but also about other possible changes in your career. If you want to change jobs — how do you do it? Another option is…
Management path
It’s especially discussed many times in Will Larson’s book where this question is asked to all interviewees. It checks all its pros & cons and discusses additional alternative that could work great which is Engineer manager pendulum.
What if you are already a manager? Get an idea of how to manage & hire Staff+ Engineers and what mistakes to avoid in the interview process.
Summary
If I had to recommend just one of these books, it would definitely be The Staff Engineer’s Path by Tanya Reilly. I love this book. As I was going through the material while writing this review I found myself thinking so many times “hmmm… would love to revisit this”, “need to read it again”, “oh my god… this is really good”, “yeah! exactly!”. If that doesn’t sound like 5/5 for a technical book, I don’t know what does.
If you are a real bookworm and have the time and money to read both books, I encourage you to do so. The first part of Will Larson’s book is really great and I think I will look to it for advice in a difficult moment. The second part of the book can be a good insight if you want to take a look inside an organization, but with the dynamics of the IT industry, I believe these observations will be (or already are) outdated.
If you don’t like to read, I think Will Larson’s book might be a good choice to read, as part 1 is only 150 pages and it covers a lot.
More books details
The Staff Engineer’s Path by Tanya Reilly:
Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track by Will Larson
