Learn how to build
an exceptional career
The Coding will always be the easiest part of a Coding Career. This is a comprehensive guide about the principles, strategies and tactics developers can use to build an awesome career!
As Seen On
What's in The Book
Career Guides
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Principles
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Strategies
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Tactics
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View the full table of contents →
Book reviews
See what our early readers are saying!
“I recommend this book for anyone who is thinking of getting into the field of software development. And I also recommend it as a reference for experienced developers. Shawn has structured this book in a way that you can easily come back to it and fill in the gaps in your knowledge.”
Quincy LarsonTeacher, freeCodeCamp
“I was also lucky enough to read @Coding_Career early and I was thoroughly blown away! It’s the book I wish I had when I started my dev career.”
Randall kanna
Engineer, Author: the Standout Developer
“I wish I had this book when I was switching jobs. It helps you understand what skills you should leverage and really encourages you not underlevel yourself!”
Samantha Bretous
Computer magic maker, Software Engineer at Mailchimp
“The links to high-value blog posts already make the book worth it, never mind the amazing insight and context provided by Shawn. Must buy for #CodeNewbies looking to break in or senior engineers looking to grow!”
Aryan Jabbari
The WebDev Coach
“For anyone looking for career advice as a coder but is tired of being told they have to do X or never do Y. Shawn is sharing his personal experiences and knowledge of navigating these sometimes overwhelming waters in the hopes you might find something useful. It's like having a caring big brother in your pocket! (if you read on your phone)”
Chen Hui Jing
CSS lover, Developer Advocate at Nexmo
“Wow! The immense wealth of knowledge and experience shared in “The Coding Career Handbook” cannot be overstated. I love how Shawn is able to take his own experience and what he's observed in the careers of others and generalize it to principles that will help others level up their own careers. 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐”
kent C. Dodds
KentCDodds.com
“I love that he included information about burnout as this is one of the biggest hurdles new developer encounter early in their career. Shawn has included links to many wonderful resources and graphs from other content creators. The section on negotiation is one I could have used early on in my career.”
Emma Bostian
Ladybug.fm, Software Engineer at Spotify
“I wish I had this book when I started my career! Every single chapter is like a growth hack but for developers. I'd say this book is worth 1000x long term!”
Carlos Roso
Full Stack Developer, Toptal
“I’m reading through swyx’s @Coding_Career and I’m genuinely impressed. It’s very dense but reads very lightly. Lots of useful context for someone coming into the industry.”
Dan Abramov
JustJavaScript.com
“The Coding Career Handbook is a superb guide to the software engineering career field. I wish I'd had this available to me when I was just starting out 15 years ago!”
Adam Rackis
Js/C++ Engineer
“The Coding career Handbook is incredible! It's practical and covers so many topics. I'll definitely use this book as a reference throughout my career”
Mahmoud Abdelwahab
Front-end Engineer, Learner Advocate at Egghead.io, Auth0 Ambassador
“What should I do? Just tell me what to do! There's no One Right Answer for how to become a coder, much less a happy and "successful" one. What there is, however, are thousands of stories of how folks have cracked the coding career themselves! Shawn has put together his story, with a ton of practical and pragmatic real world advice! The great thing about advice? You don't have to take it. The Coding Career Handbook is a wonderful collection of what's worked and what may not work for you! These are guidelines and tactics that you can incorporate into your coding life and career whether you're a code newbie or a code oldie like me - it's never too late to learn how to be a great programmer!”
Scott HanselmanProgrammer
Pricing
Pick your Coding Career package
Best Value
The Creator Package
450+ pages of Career Guides, Principles, Strategies, and Tactics
Lifetime access to book updates and Coding Career Community
Lifetime access
PDF, EPUB, MOBI versions + Audio Book + Bibliography with 2 hours of Author Commentary
10 Hours of Behind The Scenes Recorded Livestreams
Upcoming Live and Recorded Workshops ( Learn more)
Buying for your team? View team pricing →
The Community Package
450+ pages of Career Guides, Principles, Strategies, and Tactics
PDF, EPUB, MOBI versions + Audio book + Bibliography ( Learn more)
Lifetime access to book updates
Lifetime access to dedicated Coding Career Community
Book Only
450+ pages of Career Guides, Principles, Strategies, and Tactics
Lifetime access
About the author
Hello, I'm @swyx! I changed careers at age 30 , starting from doing FreeCodeCamp during nights and weekends in 2017, to getting hired as a Senior Dev Advocate at AWS in 2020.
In my other pursuits, I write, speak and teach React, TypeScript, Storybook and Node.js (including as an Egghead.io Instructor).
I am a cofounder of the Svelte Society global meetup community and up til recently served as a moderator for the 200k-strong /r/reactjs community.
Frequently asked questions
Tell me more about the Coding Career Community?
Ever feel like you didn’t have anyone outside work to talk to about your career? Here’s a dedicated space where you can do exactly that, with like minds who have gone down the same road you have. The Coding Career Community is a moderated Discord chat where you can talk with other readers about the ideas from the book, ask questions, give criticism, find collaborators, and generally use as a friendly resource as you build your coding career.
Note: Participation in the Community is subject to a Code of Conduct, and your questions are not guaranteed to be answered. This is a new community and therefore there is a lot left to figure out!
Tell me more about the Coding Career Workshops?
Get the most out of your Coding Career journey with monthly live workshops. Dive deeper into selected topics from the book and others that didn’t make the cut (yet!). Planned sessions in July are Sundays at 12pm EST (9am PDT):
- July 12: Learning in Public
- July 19: The Business of Software
- July 26: Writing and Speaking
All workshops will be recorded, so this becomes an ever-growing library of career content.
Note: Invites will come via email, all recordings will be available via your Podia purchase. Standalone workshops are available for bootcamps and small teams.
Is there any DRM? Can I share this book with my team?
No DRM, you should enjoy a hassle-free experience! If you purchase an individual license, please respect the license terms and do not distribute any copies. Team licenses are available for up to 5 team members:
- Team License for The Coding Career Handbook ($149)
- Team License for The Coding Career Community Package ($249)
Academic and nonprofit organizations can contact me for fifty percent off a team license.
Do you do Purchasing Power Parity?
We use Podia to process payments, and unfortunately PPP is not supported at this time. However the Launch Sale discount will be the lowest price offered for the book!
Can I purchase multiple copies for my team?
Yes! You can click here to check out the team packages. You can buy licenses of the Community Package for teams of up to 5 and 10. Please email me swyx@hey.com if you are a bootcamp and want to set up something for an entire cohort.xw:
How can I get future updates?
Upon purchase, you will have a Podia account tied to your email. You can use this to login and download your purchases any time. We will email you every time a new edition of the book comes out!
What format are the files?
Get the most out of your Coding Career journey with monthly live workshops. Dive deeper into selected topics from the book and others that didn’t make the cut (yet!). Planned sessions in July are Sundays at 12pm EST (9am PDT):
- The Coding Career Handbook is available in PDF, EPUB and MOBI at all 3 tiers.
- The Bibliography extracts the 1400+ external links referenced in the book as a convenience for those using e-readers on separate devices.
- The Audiobook version is available with the Community Package as a zip of mp3 files.
Note: due to a recording snafu, only half the chapters are available at launch. The rest will be rerecorded soon!
- The Creator Package comes with 2 hours of extra author commentary and 10 hours of livestreamed writing process (mp4 files)!
Your site is broken!
I use Podia for purchasing and its embedded JavaScript can fail in two ways: Either it is blocked by an overzealous Privacy Badger, or you have ”Block third-party cookies” turned on in desktop Chrome (chrome://settings/cookies). Either way, there should be a not-very-graceful fallback to send you to the Podia purchase page. If the site is broken in some other way, please contact me and I’ll fix it right away! Contact info below 👇
I have another question!
Shoot me an email at swyx@hey.com or tweet me @swyx!