Most of the software developers, programmers, and coders spend a considerable amount of their time and energy on learning technologies which get obsolete in few years like a new framework or a new programming language but they neglect something more important like soft skills. Unlike technical stuff, soft skills will not only serve you good in your job and career but also in your life and it won't get obsolete as quickly as the new web application development framework you have just learned. Similarly, most of us put a lot of effort to get a job but after that, we don't put much effort to grow on that job, the result is many programmers and software developers stuck in their careers.
They remain in one position like software engineers or senior software engineers for years and stop moving up in their careers, which means less pay and no growth. Since, no one else but you, yourself is in charge of your career, you need to come out of your comfort zone and try to move up on the ladder.
One of the challenges a programmer faces is about learning soft skills. They recognize that they need to improve their soft skill but they are not sure how to do that? Since not every programmer can learn by seeing their peers and managers without external help, it becomes very important to select a good book or course to master soft skills.
Thankfully, there are a couple of good books and courses available for career development and soft skills, particularly form esteemed authors like Robert C. Martin, David Thomas, and Andrew Hunt, which have helped millions of developers to come out of their shell and progress in their career.
In this article, I am going to share some of the books and online courses, which has helped me and I like to read regularly to improve soft skills.
Here is my collection of some of the best books to improve your Soft skills and Career Development.
The book will teach you how should you can conduct yourself in a professional environment and how you can make your impression. You will also learn how to ask the right questions so that you can find risk earlier and mitigate them.
These are just some of the things top of my head, the book is full of such advice and real-life stories from Uncle Bob, author of this book. If you could just read one book to improve your soft skills as a programmer of a technical manager, this is the book you should read and read it twice.
If you need a course to go along with this book, I highly recommend you to check Soft Skills: The 11 Essential Career Soft Skills course on Udemy. It's a nice course and also very affordable, you can buy in just $10 on Udemy sales.
The book is full of practical advice, both technical and professional which will serve you a long time in your career as a Software Developer, Programmer, and Technical Project Manager. The second edition of the book has come after 20 years of Pragmatic Programmer and full of advice for modern developers.
You will how to take charge of your career and how to build teams of Pragmatic Programmers to succeed further. The book is written as a series of self-contained sections and filled with classical and fresh stories, anecdotes, thoughtful examples, and interesting analogies.
This also means that you can start with any chapter you want. I generally read it chapter by chapter whenever I get time. Though, if you want to take your soft skills to the next level, then I also suggest you check out How to become an Outstanding Solution Architect course on Udemy. It's a great course for experienced programmers.
This is an extremely helpful and encouraging book about the fundamental principles for a software developer career. It gives you not only thoughts, but instructions and routines to follow. In short, must-read books for every coder, programmer, software developer, and tech geeks. Big thanks to both David Thomas and Andrew Hunt for creating such an awesome book for developers.
It also teaches you how to deal with people and politics, which is very important because its people are our managers and clients and in charge of our career and job.
It also has some of the things which many of you wouldn't like to see e.g. Why guys should not chase girls and what a committed woman wants from HER guy, but nonetheless, it contains some good advice and I don't mind them because after all its a confessions of a software techie :-)
The full title of the book is "Confessions of a Software Techie: The Surprising Truth about Things that Really Matter".
You'll learn how to build your software development career step by step, following the same path that you would follow if you were building, marketing, and selling a product.
After all, your skills themselves are a product. In short, a great book for programmers and software who care about their careers, which teaches you how you can set the direction of your career, leading to a more fulfilling and remarkable professional life.
That's all about some of the best books to learn about career development and soft skills for programmers. It's one area which is often gets neglected by the programmer and because of those many quality programmers stuck in the same position for years.
These books teach you all soft skills needed to survive and excel and software developer. It helps you to climb the ladder of career advancement and make you more valuable by encouraging you to learn about business, leadership, and management apart from coding.
Further Learning
Soft Skills: The 11 Essential Career Soft Skills
Soft Skills You Need to Be Successful at the Office
Career Management 2.0 by Jason Alba
Other Books and Programming Articles you may like
Thanks a lot for reading this article so far, if you like these books then please share with your friends and colleagues. If you have any feedback or questions then please drop a note.
P. S. - If you want to take your career to next level but looking for some free courses to start with then you can also check out the IT Professional 2.0 - Take your Career to Next level course on Udemy to start with. It's completely free and all you need to do is create a free Udemy account to enroll in this course.
They remain in one position like software engineers or senior software engineers for years and stop moving up in their careers, which means less pay and no growth. Since, no one else but you, yourself is in charge of your career, you need to come out of your comfort zone and try to move up on the ladder.
Remember, if you don't move forward, eventually, you will start moving backward or left behind.
One of the challenges a programmer faces is about learning soft skills. They recognize that they need to improve their soft skill but they are not sure how to do that? Since not every programmer can learn by seeing their peers and managers without external help, it becomes very important to select a good book or course to master soft skills.
Thankfully, there are a couple of good books and courses available for career development and soft skills, particularly form esteemed authors like Robert C. Martin, David Thomas, and Andrew Hunt, which have helped millions of developers to come out of their shell and progress in their career.
In this article, I am going to share some of the books and online courses, which has helped me and I like to read regularly to improve soft skills.
5 Soft Skills and Career Development Books for Programmers
Here is my collection of some of the best books to improve your Soft skills and Career Development.1. The Clean Coder - A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers
This is the book I always wish I would have gotten earlier. I strongly suggest every programmer read this book because it will teach you things which you generally learn in Jobs but it will teach you better. You will learn things like how to say NO so that you won't stress yourself by overcommitting and delivering less.The book will teach you how should you can conduct yourself in a professional environment and how you can make your impression. You will also learn how to ask the right questions so that you can find risk earlier and mitigate them.
These are just some of the things top of my head, the book is full of such advice and real-life stories from Uncle Bob, author of this book. If you could just read one book to improve your soft skills as a programmer of a technical manager, this is the book you should read and read it twice.
If you need a course to go along with this book, I highly recommend you to check Soft Skills: The 11 Essential Career Soft Skills course on Udemy. It's a nice course and also very affordable, you can buy in just $10 on Udemy sales.
2. Pragmatic Programmer 2nd Edition
This is another fantastic book which I wish every programmer should read. As the title suggests, the Pragramtic Programmer is full of advice for the programmer to succeed in their career and job. This is also one of the most significant books I have read on Programming and Software Development.The book is full of practical advice, both technical and professional which will serve you a long time in your career as a Software Developer, Programmer, and Technical Project Manager. The second edition of the book has come after 20 years of Pragmatic Programmer and full of advice for modern developers.
You will how to take charge of your career and how to build teams of Pragmatic Programmers to succeed further. The book is written as a series of self-contained sections and filled with classical and fresh stories, anecdotes, thoughtful examples, and interesting analogies.
This also means that you can start with any chapter you want. I generally read it chapter by chapter whenever I get time. Though, if you want to take your soft skills to the next level, then I also suggest you check out How to become an Outstanding Solution Architect course on Udemy. It's a great course for experienced programmers.
This is an extremely helpful and encouraging book about the fundamental principles for a software developer career. It gives you not only thoughts, but instructions and routines to follow. In short, must-read books for every coder, programmer, software developer, and tech geeks. Big thanks to both David Thomas and Andrew Hunt for creating such an awesome book for developers.
3. Confessions of a Software Techie
This is another great book I read recently on soft skills for computer programmers. The best thing about this book is that it teaches you things which matter most. Everybody talks about writing clean code but nobody talks about writing good emails, this book does. It teaches you how to write emails that people want to read and act.It also teaches you how to deal with people and politics, which is very important because its people are our managers and clients and in charge of our career and job.
It also has some of the things which many of you wouldn't like to see e.g. Why guys should not chase girls and what a committed woman wants from HER guy, but nonetheless, it contains some good advice and I don't mind them because after all its a confessions of a software techie :-)
The full title of the book is "Confessions of a Software Techie: The Surprising Truth about Things that Really Matter".
5. The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development
Success in today's IT environment requires you to view your career as a business endeavor. In this book, you'll learn how to become an entrepreneur, driving your career in the direction of your choosing.You'll learn how to build your software development career step by step, following the same path that you would follow if you were building, marketing, and selling a product.
After all, your skills themselves are a product. In short, a great book for programmers and software who care about their careers, which teaches you how you can set the direction of your career, leading to a more fulfilling and remarkable professional life.
That's all about some of the best books to learn about career development and soft skills for programmers. It's one area which is often gets neglected by the programmer and because of those many quality programmers stuck in the same position for years.
These books teach you all soft skills needed to survive and excel and software developer. It helps you to climb the ladder of career advancement and make you more valuable by encouraging you to learn about business, leadership, and management apart from coding.
Further Learning
Soft Skills: The 11 Essential Career Soft Skills
Soft Skills You Need to Be Successful at the Office
Career Management 2.0 by Jason Alba
Other Books and Programming Articles you may like
- How to become an Outstanding Solution Architect
- Top 10 IT Certifications for Java Developers
- 5 Must-Read Books to become Solution Architect
- Top 5 Career Options for Experienced Java developers
- 10 Books Every Programmer should Read
- Top 15 Free Courses to Learn Python Programming
- Top 10 Advanced Core Java Books for Experienced
- 10 Algorithm Books for Programmers
- 5 Books to improve your Coding Skills
- 10 Must-Read Books for Senior Programmers
- 10 Books to Prepare Coding/Programming Interviews
- Top 10 Coursera Certificate to Start your career in Tech
Thanks a lot for reading this article so far, if you like these books then please share with your friends and colleagues. If you have any feedback or questions then please drop a note.
P. S. - If you want to take your career to next level but looking for some free courses to start with then you can also check out the IT Professional 2.0 - Take your Career to Next level course on Udemy to start with. It's completely free and all you need to do is create a free Udemy account to enroll in this course.
6 comments :
Hi Paul,
Thanks for sharing. We have thought from this perspective. Anyway How do you manage time and stay motivated to read so many books?
Hello Saurabh, I read so many books mostly while travelling or commuting. That's the best use of that time.
Hello sir. Do you have android app for reliability
Hi Paul, Thanks for sharing. I really needed these references. You blogs are very much inspiring. I am fan of your blogs. :)
Thank you Kavitha, glad you find these books helpful.
#4 is missing.
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