My journey is a bit of a bumpy one and full of learnings. I'm so grateful for the experience and the people that help me along the way. I recently joined a European public company as a Lead Software Engineer. The role is part of the leadership model in the company with the responsibility of Principal Software Engineer and Senior Engineering Manager. It's as challenging as it sounds to shift from being an individual contributor to having a duo responsibility, but I was prepared. I want to share all the resources that have had a tremendous impact on my road to tech leadership with you. My hope is that regardless of your background or where you are in your career, some of these resources here can help unblock you or offer you inspiration when you need them. TL;DR 👯 Value relationships. Not just with others, but with yourself too. 🚀 Find your leadership style. It multiplies your impact. 🦄 Stay true to your craft. It's the cornerstone of your value proposition. Valuing Relationships Your relationship with yourself is as important, if not more, as your relationships with others. After I found my center, I noticed a clarity to communicate authentically. It helps me discuss without arguing from ego, and provide candid feedback during 1:1s with my peers and talents. I'm able to form more meaningful relationships and communicate more effectively. The books that help me understand myself by Steve Peters The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness by Susan Cain Quiet by Malcolm Gladwell Outliers: The Story of Success by Angela Duckworth Grit by Bob Rotella, and Bob Cullen (Contributor) How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life by Carol S. Dweck Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Brené Brown Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Kelly McGonigal The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It The books that help me stay consistent by James Clear Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by Andy Puddicombe The Headspace Guide to Meditation & Mindfulness by Marie Kondō The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Charles Duhigg The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Matthew Walker Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams The resources that help me stay consistent Huberman Lab Headspace The books that help me form meaningful relationships with others by Steve Peters The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness by Kim Malone Scott Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Brené Brown Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Warner Klemp 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership Finding Your Style It's important to think about your way of scaling your influence and impact. I started off my leadership journey by helping a small but important project without a lead title. I took care of the tedious work no one wanted to do like organizing documentation, taking meeting minutes, and following up on actions. As I got more years under my belt, I was involved in bigger projects. More teams, higher stakes, longer time budgets, higher complexities. My focus turned to how to empower all parties involved to iterate and deliver, and at the same time be helpful in alignment on tech excellence. Tech leadership is not one size fits all to me at all. I'm not the most outspoken engineer. I listen. I'm empathetic, thorough, and unwavering, and I believe my best work comes from solitude. I have no doubt that you can be true to who you are and be an outstanding leader. The books that help me find my leadership foundation by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Warner Klemp 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Susan Cain Quiet by Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Bill George, David Gergen (Foreword) Discover Your True North by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Ray Dalio Principles: Life and Work by Marty Cagan Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love Staying True to Craft It’s clear to me that building a consistent product people love correlates with a company culture that values tech excellence. Ari Balogh, CTO at Airbnb, wrote the article and it captured my notion. I believe the pursuit of craft not only facilitates an individual’s lateral and vertical growth, but also equips a company’s economic growth. “Commitment to Craft” Always learning😎 My curiosity took me on a wild ride in tech. I started out wanting to make beautiful websites, and now I’m building packages, release pipelines, API gateways and services, and CLI applications. I was trained to be a UX researcher, and now I’m doing performance monitoring and optimization, SEO, CDN deployments, and performance marketing. I was told that I wasn’t good enough, and now I’m mentoring, coaching, and sharing my learnings in the tech community. Commit to your craft. The resources about web architecture by Martin Fowler Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost? AirbnbEng: Commitment to Craft Domain Driven Design Netflix Tech Blog by Cloudflare OSI Model by Alex Xu System Design Interview — An Insider’s Guide Tech at trivago The Airbnb Tech Blog The System Design Primer Uber Engineering by Martin Fowler Making Architecture Matter — Martin Fowler Keynote Learning SEO — A Roadmap with Free Guides & Tools Akamai EdgeWorkers GitHub Actions by Catchpoint Synthetic & Real User Monitoring Explained by Tejas Shikhare How Netflix Scales its API with GraphQL Federation (Part 1) The resources about programming languages by Reg “raganwald” Braithwaite JavaScript Allongé, the “Six” Edition TC39 Proposals V8 The Rust Programming Language Learn Rust With Entirely Too Many Linked Lists Rust by Example The resources about UI/UX 52 Weeks of UX Material Design WAI-ARIA basics Final Thoughts The potential in tech is limitless. Sometimes your journey might be tough, but don’t be discouraged. There is so much amazing wisdom in books and articles within your reach to help you accomplish your vision. Let’s get it🚀 References Books by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Warner Klemp 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by James Clear Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by Brené Brown Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Bill George, David Gergen (Foreword) Discover Your True North by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Angela Duckworth Grit by Bob Rotella, and Bob Cullen (Contributor) How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life by Marty Cagan Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Carol S. Dweck Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Malcolm Gladwell Outliers: The Story of Success by William Zinsser On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by Ray Dalio Principles: Life and Work by Susan Cain Quiet by Kim Malone Scott Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Steve Klabnik, Carol Nichols, with contributions from the Rust Community The Rust Programming Language by Cal Newport So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Alex Xu System Design Interview — An Insider’s Guide by Steve Peters The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness by Andy Puddicombe The Headspace Guide to Meditation & Mindfulness by Marie Kondō The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Charles Duhigg The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career by Kelly McGonigal The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Matthew Walker Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams This article is originally posted on . 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Tech Career Stories: From Frontend Developer to Principal Software Engineer

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Tech Career Stories: From Frontend Developer to Principal Software Engineer

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Daw-Chih Liou

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