100+ resources to become a great engineering leader
List of books, newsletters, people and more!
Intro
Investing in yourself is a great investment anytime! I am sharing with you my personally curated resources to level up and grow to become a great engineering leader in 2024!
Topics span from software engineering, system design, data engineering, leadership, management and all the way to product and business.
How to start?
There are a LOT of resources here and your time is very important. I don’t suggest trying to learn all of the resources at once, I suggest picking a few resources at a time from specific categories that you need the most. That’s what I do as well.
When I need to go into more detail in a specific category, I choose the resources and do a deep dive into the specific topics. I also connect with certain individuals, check their posts and/or ask them questions.
Important: Before you choose which resources you wish to go into more detail, I suggest doing a retrospective of your current skill set and defining where you need to improve. This will ensure you are spending your time on the most impactful things first!
Get better in System Design
List of books
Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann
System Design Interview by Alex Xu
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler
Understanding Distirbuted Systems by Roberto Vitillo
Clean Architecture by Robert C. Martin
Systems Analysis and Design, multiple editions and multiple authors
Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems by Sam Newman
Fundamentals of Software Architecture by Neal Ford and Mark Richards
Software Architecture: The Hard Parts by Neal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage and Zhamak Dehghani
List of blogs
List of newsletters
- by
- by Alex Nguyen
- by
- by
People to follow on LinkedIn
Become a better Leader / Manager
List of books
The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo
The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins
The Lean Manager by Andrew and Muhammad Wilkerson
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
The Manager's Path by Camille Fournieri
Leadership in 60 seconds by Omar Halabieh
Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell
Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson
How to Lead When You're Not in Charge by Clay Scroggins
Think Again by Adam Grant
The Mind of the Leader by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter
The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
Engineering Management for the rest of us by Sarah Drasner
List of newsletters
- by (this newsletter)
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
People to follow on LinkedIn
Become a better Software Engineer
List of books
The Pragmatic Programmer by Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas
Refactoring by Martin Fowler and Kent Beck
Why Programs Fail by Andreas Zeller
Clean Code by Robert Cecil Martin
Grokking Algorithms by Aditya Y. Bhargava
Staff Engineer by Will Larson
Modern Software Engineering by David Farley
Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers
Engineering Software Products by Ian Sommerville
Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
Code Complete by Steve McConnell
The Staff Engineer's Path by Tanya Reilly
Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
List of newsletters
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
People to follow on LinkedIn
Become product-minded and business-oriented
List of books
Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan
Empowered by Marty Cagan
Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products by Martina Lauchengco
Transformed by Marty Cagan
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You by Melina Palmer
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
List of newsletters
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
- by
People to follow on LinkedIn
Get better at Data Engineering / Data Science
List of books
Fundamentals of Data Engineering by Matt Housley
Data Engineering with Python by Paul Crickard
Spark: The Definitive Guide by Matei Zaharia
Big Data: Principles and Best Practices of Scalable Realtime Data Systems by James Warren
97 Things Every Data Engineer Should Know by Tobias Macey
List of newsletters
by by by by by by Joe ReisPeople to follow on LinkedIn
Last words
Any books, newsletters or people that you know would be a great addition to this list? Make sure to add them in the comments! I am always in the lookout for some more great books / newsletters / people to learn from!
Liked this article? Make sure to 💙 click the like button.
Feedback or addition? Make sure to 💬 comment.
Know someone that would find this helpful? Make sure to 🔁 share this post.
Whenever you are ready, here is how I can help you further
Join the Cohort course Senior Engineer to Lead: Grow and thrive in the role here.
Interested in sponsoring this newsletter? Check the sponsorship options here.
Book a Coaching and Mentoring or Consulting and Advising call with me here.
Take a look at the cool swag in the Engineering Leadership Store here.
Get in touch
You can find me on LinkedIn or Twitter.
If you wish to make a request on particular topic you would like to read, you can send me an email to info@gregorojstersek.com.
This newsletter is funded by paid subscriptions from readers like yourself.
If you aren’t already, consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive the full experience!
You are more than welcome to find whatever interests you here and try it out in your particular case. Let me know how it went! Topics are normally about leadership, management, all things engineering related, developing scalable products, building teams etc.
Wonderful compilation of resources. I am sure these will be very very useful for career growth. May I suggest The New One Minute Manager book for Leader/Manager books section? Way to go! 👍
What a wonderful blueprint of resources.
Thanks for recommending Product Growth.