Soft Skills
Manning Publications (Verlag)
978-1-61729-239-2 (ISBN)
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- Boost your career by building a personal brand
- John's secret ten-step process for learning quickly
- Fitness advice to turn your geekiness to your advantage
- Unique strategies for investment and early retirement
Being a successful developer requires more than just excellent code slinging skills.
There are also the real-life challenges like managing a career path, dealing with clients, peers, and managers, staying productive, achieving financial security, and even staying in shape or finding true love. Software developers don't have time for fluffy advice on work/life balance from the latest instant-karma guru.
They need someone who understands their unique perspective as a software developer. Meet John Sonmez.
Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual is a developer to developer guide offering techniques and practices for a more satisfying life as a professional software developer. In it, developer and life coach John Sonmez addresses a wide range of important "soft" topics from career and productivity, to personal finance and investing, and even fitness and relationships all from a developer-centric viewpoint.
Soft Skills will not only help readers become a better programmer, but a more successful, happier, and healthier person too.
John Sonmez is the founder of Simple Programmer, where he tirelessly pursues his vision of transforming complex issues into simple solutions. He has published over 50 courses on topics such as iOS, Android, .NET, Java, and game development for the online developer training resource Pluralsight. He also hosts the Get Up and CODE podcast, where he talks about fitness for programmers, and the Entre-programmers podcast, where he and three other developers/entrepreneurs share their real stories of building their online businesses. John is a life coach for software developers, and helps software engineers, programmers, and other technical professionals boost their careers and live a more fulfilled life. He empowers them to accomplish their goals by making the complex simple.
Foreword
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About This Book
About the Author
1 Why this book is unlike any book you've ever read
Section 1 Career
2 Getting started with a "BANG!": Don't do what everyone else does
Having a business mindset
How to think like a business
3 Thinking about the future: What are your goals?
How to set goals
Tracking your goals
4 People skills: You need them more than you think
Leave me alone, I just want to write code!
Learning how to deal with people
5 Hacking the interview
The quickest way to "pass" an interview
How I got my last job
Thinking outside of the box and building rapport
But what about the actual interview itself?
What can you do right now?
6 Employment options: Enumerate your choices
Option 1: The employee
Option 2: The independent consultant
Option 3: The entrepreneur
Which should you pick?
7 What kind of software developer are you?
Specialization is important
Getting specific about specialties
Kinds of specialties for software developers
Picking your specialty
What about the Polyglot programmer?
8 Not all companies are equal
Small companies and startups
Medium-size companies
Large companies
Software development companies versus companies with software developers
Choose carefully
9 Climbing the corporate ladder
Taking responsibility
Becoming visible
Educate yourself
Be the problem solver
What about politics?
10 Being a professional
What is a professional?
Being a professional (forming good habits)
Doing what is right
Seeking quality and self-improvement
11 Freedom: How to quit your job
Going about things the smart way
Preparing to work for yourself
How much do you really work?
Cutting the cord
12 Freelancing: Going out on your own
Getting started
Ask someone you know
Best way to get clients
Setting your rate
13 Creating your first product
Finding an audience
Testing the market
Start small
Getting started
14 Do you want to start a startup?
Startup basics
Go big or go home
A typical startup lifecycle
Accelerators
Getting funded
15 Working remotely survival strategies
The challenges of being a hermit
16 Fake it till you make it
What it means to fake it until you make it
Putting it into practice
17 Resumes are BORING—Let's fix that
You aren't a professional resume writer
Hiring a resume writer
Going the extra mile
What if you don't want to hire a professional?
18 Don't get religious about technology
We are all religious about technology
Everything is good
My conversion
Don't limit your options
Section 2 Marketing yourself
19 Marketing basics for code monkeys
What marketing yourself means
Why marketing yourself is important
How to market yourself
20 Building a brand that gets you noticed
What is a brand?
What makes up a brand?
Creating your own brand
21 Creating a wildly successful blog
Why are blogs so important?
Creating a blog
Keys to success
Getting more traffic
I can't guarantee you success
22 Your primary goal: Add value to others
Give people what they want
Give away 90% of what you do for free
The fast track to success
Offering more of yourself
23 #UsingSocialNetworks
Growing your network
Using social media effectively
Staying active
Networks and accounts
24 Speaking, presenting, and training: Speak geek
Why speaking live is so impactful
Getting started speaking
What about training?
25 Writing books and articles that attract a following
Why books and articles are important
Books and magazines don't pay
Getting published
Self-publishing
26 Don't be afraid to look like an idiot
Everything is uncomfortable at first
It's okay to look like an idiot
Take small steps (or dive right in)
Section 3 Learning 157
27 Learning how to learn: How to teach yourself
Dissecting the learning process
Teaching yourself
28 My 10-step process
The idea behind the system
The 10-step system
29 Steps 1-6: Do these once
Step 1: Get the big picture
Step 2: Determine scope
Step 3: Define success
Step 4: Find resources
Step 5: Create a learning plan
Step 6: Filter resources
30 Steps 7-10: Repeat these
Step 7: Learn enough to get started
Step 8: Play around
Step 9: Learn enough to do something useful
Step 10: Teach
Final thoughts
31 Looking for mentors: Finding your Yoda
Mentor qualities
Where to find a mentor
Virtual mentors
Recruiting a mentor
32 Taking on an apprentice: Being Yoda
Being a mentor
The benefits of mentorship
Picking a "worthy" apprentice
33 Teaching: Learn you want? Teach you must.
I'm not a teacher
What happens when you teach?
Getting started
34 Do you need a degree or can you "wing it?"
Do you need a degree to succeed?
Advantages to having a degree
What if you don't have a degree?
35 Finding gaps in your knowledge
Why we leave the gaps
Finding your gaps
Filling the gaps
Section 4 Productivity
36 It all starts with focus
What is focus?
The magic of focus
Getting more focus
It's not as easy as it sounds
37 My personal productivity plan
Overview
Quarterly planning
Monthly planning
Weekly planning
Daily planning and execution
Dealing with interruptions
Breaks and vacations
38 Pomodoro Technique
Pomodoro Technique overview
Using the Pomodoro Technique effectively
The mental game
How much work can you get done?
39 My quota system: How I get way more done than I should
The problem
Enter quotas
How the quota system works
Why the quota system works
40 Holding yourself accountable
Accountability
Becoming accountable to yourself
External accountability
41 Multitasking dos and don'ts
Why multitasking is generally bad
Batching is much more productive
What about true multitasking?
42 Burnout: I've got the cure!
How you burn out
In reality, you're just hitting a wall
On the other side of the wall
Pushing past the wall
43 How you're wasting your time
The biggest time waster of all
Giving up the TV
Other time wasters
Tracking your time
44 The importance of having a routine
Routines make you
Creating a routine
Getting more detailed
45 Developing habits: Brushing your code
Understanding habits
Recognizing bad habits and altering them
Forming new habits
46 Breaking down things: How to eat an elephant
Why bigger isn't always better
Breaking down things
How to break down things
Breaking down problems
47 The value of hard work and why you keep avoiding it
Why is hard work so darn...hard?
I'll just work "smarter"
Hard work is boring
The reality
Working hard: How to do it
48 Any action is better than no action
Why we refuse to take action
What happens when you don't take action
What is the worst that could happen?
It's easier to steer a moving car
What can you do now?
Section 5 Financial
49 What are you going to do with your paycheck?
Stop thinking short term
Assets and liabilities
Back to your paycheck
50 How to negotiate your salary
Negotiations begin before you even apply for the job
How you get the job is extremely important
First person to name a number loses
What about when you're asked to name a number first?
What if you're asked about your current salary?
When you have an offer
Some final advice
51 Options: Where all the fun is
Option basics
Digging a little deeper
Selling options
More complex options
52 Bits and bytes of real estate investing
Why real estate investment?
Okay, so how do I do it?
First step: Education
Taking action
Use property management
53 Do you really understand your retirement plan?
Retirement is all about working backwards
Calculating your retirement goal
Path 1: 401(k), IRAs, or other retirement accounts
Path 2: Setting up an early retirement or aiming to get rich
What if I am stuck in the middle or close to retirement?
54 The danger of debt: SSDs are expensive
Why debt is generally bad
Some common debt follies
Not all debt is bad
55 Bonus: How I retired at 33
What it means to be "retired"
How I got started
Rental woes
Gaining traction
Grinding it out
Short circuit?
More grinding it out
Turning a corner
The lucky break
Hard work mode
Multiple passive income streams
A quick analysis
Section 6 Fitness
56 Why you need to hack your health
Confidence
Brain power
Fear
57 Setting your fitness criteria
Picking a specific goal
Creating milestones
Measuring your progress
Living a healthy lifestyle
58 Thermodynamics, calories, and you
What is a calorie?
Losing weight is simple
How many calories are you consuming?
How many calories are you burning?
Utilizing calories to achieve your goal
59 Motivation: Getting your butt out of the chair
What motivates you?
Rewarding yourself too early
Motivation ideas
Just get it done!
60 How to gain muscle: Nerds can have bulging biceps
How muscles grow
Weightlifting basics
Different goals
Getting started
What lifts should you do?
What to eat
61 How to get hash-table abs
Abs are made in the kitchen
Your body doesn't want you to have abs
What can you do about it?
62 Starting RunningProgram.exe
Why you might want to run
Getting started running
Advice for getting started
63 Standing desks and other hacks
Standing desks and treadmills
Food hacks
64 Tech gear for fitness: Geeking out
Step counters and pedometers
Wireless scales
Combo devices
PUSH strength
Headphones
Apps
Section 7 Spirit
65 How the mind influences the body
It starts with the mind
The mind and body connection
66 Having the right mental attitude: Rebooting
What is positivity?
The positive effects of positivity
How to reboot your attitude
67 Building a positive self-image: Programming your brain 408
What is self-image?
Your self-image is difficult to change
Reprogramming your brain
68 Love and relationships: Computers can't hold your hand
Why software developers sometimes have a hard time finding love
Understanding the game
So, all I have to do is be confident, right?
It's a numbers game
69 My personal success book list
Self-help and inspirational books
Software development books
Investing
70 Facing failure head-on
Why are we so afraid of failure, anyway?
Failure isn't defeat
Failure is the road to success
Learn to embrace failure
71 Parting words
Appendix A: If you can write code, you can understand finances
Appendix B: How the stock market works: Rules of the system
Appendix C: Garbage in, garbage out: Diet and nutrition basics
Appendix D: How to eat healthy: Pizza is not a food group
index
Late in the evening of Friday, December 5, 2014 (my 62nd birthday), I received an email from John Sonmez, the author of this book. He wrote, asking me to write a foreword by Monday, December 8. In John's email was a zip file with several dozen Word files—I found this presentation of the manuscript to be inconvenient and annoying, and I didn't have time to generate a PDF of the whole book. I wasn't pleased to get such a request. My wife had just had double knee replacements and was in rehab. I had a flying lesson Saturday morning and planned to spend the rest of the day with my wife. I was scheduled to board a plane to London Saturday evening and teach courses Monday through Friday. So there was no way, not by Monday. John hadn't given me enough time, and I told him so. Just before driving to the airport, I found John had sent me a Christmas package of cheeses and ham. It included a card, thanking me for considering writing the foreword. Also, I received another email from John in which he said he had begged his publisher for another day, so he could give me until Tuesday. He sent me several other imploring emails, but I told him that there was no reasonable chance, and that he should expect nothing from me. I drove to the airport, boarded the plane, slept through the flight, and took a taxi to my favorite London hotel. I was wiped out by the travel and played Minecraft in a stupor until I finally crashed. On Monday I taught a full day, and then had to do some work on the SMC Compiler for Episode 30 of my Clean Code video series on http://cleancoders.com. Today is Tuesday, December 9. It's the second day of my class, and I just started the students working on a two-hour exercise. I checked my email and found that John had sent me another message with a simple PDF of the whole book. Okay, that would make things easier. I could just open that file and scroll up and down the book. Nice. Note what I'm telling you: John did what was necessary. He thought about what I might need and want. He followed his original request with inducements and helpful aids. He clearly spent a lot of time and effort working to make my job easier, on the off-chance that it would make it possible for me to write this foreword. Even after I'd declined and told him it was almost certainly impossible, he continued to find ways to induce and aid me. He didn't give up. He didn't back down. As long as there was a chance, he continued to search for a way. And that is what this book is about. It's about getting to success. It's about the habits and strategies, procedures and mindsets, and tricks and hacks that you can use to push yourself ever closer to success. John's actions toward me, after his original request, are an example, and he is an exemplar, of what he has written in this book. So, with two hours to kill while the students did their exercise, I cracked the PDF open and began to read. Whoa! Look at the topics! He talks about physical fitness. He talks about options trading. He talks about real estate. He talks about spiritual balance. He talks about quitting your job, starting a consulting business, joining a startup, building a product, climbing the corporate ladder, marketing yourself, and the list goes on... Knowing I'd never be able to read the entire book in two hours, and that I wasn't going to write the foreword anyway, I read and skimmed, and read and skimmed again. But as I did, I started to get the feeling that John had a message and that it was a good one! It was a holistic message, one that every software developer (and everybody else, for that matter) ought to hear. Do you know how to write a resume? Do you know how to negotiate your salary? Do you know how to set your rates as an independent consultant? Do you know how to weigh the risks of quitting your job to become a contractor? Do you understand how to get funding for a startup? Do you understand the cost of watching TV? (Yes, you read that right.) These are the things this book talks about, and can teach you. They're things you need to know. I haven't read the whole book, but I've read in the book and skimmed a lot of it, and that was enough, because here I am, writing this foreword, after all. My conclusion is that if you're a young software developer trying to find your way in this complex industry, then you're holding a book that will give you a lot of insight and good advice. John figured out a way to get me to write this foreword, despite a bumpy beginning, an impossible schedule, and the overall difficulty of the situation. He applied the principles that he writes about in this book, and, once again, gained success! ROBERT C. MARTIN (UNCLE BOB) Uncle Bob Consulting LLC I've long been an advocate for soft skills. Coding is so harsh and cold. Everything is so easily measured in the hard world of code. How many lines of code can you write? How productive can you be? Did those tests pass? It's easy to get caught up in the measurement of it all and lose sight of the human aspect of technology. Are you liked? Are you appreciated? Are you kind and welcoming? Do you inspire with your positivity and supportive demeanor, or just with your ruthless competence? Are you taking care of yourself, your back, your buns, and your brain? I've been coding for well over 25 years and, let me tell you, things break down if you don't take care of them. Perhaps you're a consultant, as many of us are. Are you taking care of your finances? Money doesn't compile quite the same way as code, as much as you'd wish it did. All of these skills and so many more make up the so-called soft skills. What John has done for us with this book is to compile all of the things one needs to know to form, well, a well-rounded software professional! After many years of fail-fast, fail-often, John speaks from vast experience about what works and what doesn't. Soft Skills is a near complete brain dump from a successful engineer and it gives you useful, practical, and actionable advice on a wide array of topics. I'd also recommend you check out my free video documentary, "Get Involved in Tech" at http://www.getinvolvedintech.com for a video discussion of what it means to be a social developer, just like John talks about in Section 2 of this very book! John and I think similarly about these things which is why I'm thrilled to be writing this foreword. Enjoy this book. Take it a little at a time, jump around, absorb, and return to it. Continuous integration and continuous improvement work in wetware as well as software! SCOTT HANSELMAN Software Architect, Engineer, Author, Teacher
I'd love to be able to give you a fantastic story about how I came to write this book. I'd like to tell you that I was meditating in the desert when an eagle flew down, landed on my shoulder, and whispered in my ear, "You must write a book about soft skills for software developers." I'd like to tell you that the book came to me in a dream; that I was awakened by a vision of the outline of the book in the middle of the night and that I started frantically writing chapters, trying to capture what I had seen. But the truth is that I wrote the book because I felt that I had to. Throughout my life as a software developer, I've been on many different journeys. I've taken some right paths, some wrong paths, and some paths that I'm still not sure about. Along the way, I haven't had much help or guidance. I've never felt like there was someone who had cut a trail for me that I could follow. I've never felt like there was someone who could show me how to be the most successful software developer I could be—not just in writing code—but in life in general. Sure, there have been plenty of people who have influenced my life, and plenty of people who've taught me all kinds of things about software development and more. I certainly owe what I've accomplished in life, in part, to those people. But I've never found a single person or guide that condensed all this information into one place. Things like Not only how to manage my career, but how to make the right choices about my career How to learn in a better and more efficient way and how to be as productive as possible, and what to do when I feel unmotivated and discouraged The basics of finance, physical and mental health, and how all those things affect me in my role as a software developer and as a person living on this planet. I wrote this book because I wanted to provide that guide—or at least to do the best job I could of providing it with what I've learned from my personal experience and from the experiences of other successful software developers, financial experts, fitness gurus, and motivational speakers that I've had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with. I wrote this book because I felt that it would be a waste to not share what I have learned and what I have experienced. I wrote this book, for you ...to make your journey a little easier ...to help you become a better version of yourself ...and, most importantly, to help you not feel so alone in your journey through life as a software developer. Did reading this make you feel inspired? Good. Let's begin the journey!
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 8.1.2015 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | New York |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 189 x 236 mm |
| Gewicht | 837 g |
| Einbandart | kartoniert |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Bewerbung / Karriere |
| Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik ► Software Entwicklung | |
| Schlagworte | Soft Skills • Softwareentwicklung |
| ISBN-10 | 1-61729-239-7 / 1617292397 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-61729-239-2 / 9781617292392 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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