This guide covers top three career development roadmap resources in tech, engineering, and management. Every resource was validated either by myself or by my mentees. Sometimes you just need to have the map not to get lost in the woods of tech, and I am happy to share with you the tools to acquire this map.
- Roadmap.sh and career roadmaps
- Books by Gergely Orosz on career development
- Career advisors and growth consultants
- Summary
The topic of career development roadmaps is one of the most common when discussing career progression and future in tech. Questions like “my tech career is stuck” or “how to create a career roadmap in tech” pop here and there all the time. As I already mentioned, one of the most important qualities is the agility and ability to learn during all those layoffs and changing markets. Career roadmaps resources gathered in this guide are up-to-date and provide detailed enough steps to learn and try something new in your tech career.
Roadmap.sh and career roadmaps
The roadmap.sh has a fascinating variety of development roadmaps for every role, skill, or project (and they add new content over and over). Roadmaps are constantly updated by the community and mostly benefit juniors and middle engineers. However, seniors will also find the service useful, as it provides detailed enough guides to broaden the horizon of even the most sophisticated specialists.
As an example, one of my former colleagues followed the roadmap for Go Developer (after having a decade-long Ruby and RoR career in Silicon Valley) and they were able to land quite a sweet offer (the fun part is that the interview was heavily based on the same roadmap). You can also check out the Roadmap.sh GitHub project.
Books by Gergely Orosz on career development
If you hear this name for the first time, then, I hope, you at least heard about the Pragmatic Engineer book. The Pragmatic Engineer book provides amazing insights into the skills, tactics, and strategies that you need to advance in engineering or leadership. It does not give you a clear path regarding career development, but it certainly gives you building blocks for your career in almost any field.
Another amazing book from the same author is The Software Engineer’s Guidebook. It is fairly new and I have not read it yet, but it is exactly about choosing and building your career. Even the very first chapter discusses developer career fundamentals – career paths, how to switch then, how to get promotions, and so on. Must read when deciding on further career development! You can get both books at Amazon or any other store – The Pragmatic Engineer and The Software Engineer’s Guidebook.
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Career advisors and growth consultants
Both resources mentioned above are one-way – you check them or download, you learn, you succeed. However, it usually goes much faster and more efficiently when you can discuss the topic with a career advisor or growth consultant to help with your career development roadmap. There are multiple resources available to book meetings with a specialist, personally I use and suggest Mentor Cruise (some people say Mentspot has the same quality).
My advice is to look around Roadmap.sh and find something that sounds interesting first. After that, it is much easier to discuss specifics with career and growth specialists. Usually it is enough to have one or two calls.
The better a career advisor is, the more they charge – however, this is totally worth it as they help you understand what you really want in terms of career and what to do to get there. Sometimes you just need the opinion from somebody else.
Summary
Use your time wisely and if the career progression does not satisfy you, it is never too early to start looking around. If you are lucky and have good managers, they will guide you to maximize the output for your personal goals and goals of the company. If you got a lousy manager, it is totally on you to start preparing for a new role by yourself.
There are plenty of resources available to come up with a career development roadmap that suits you. Good luck on your next career challenges!
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