• The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide

  • How to Learn Programming Languages Quickly, Ace Your Programming Interview, and Land Your Software Developer Dream Job
  • By: John Sonmez
  • Narrated by: John Sonmez
  • Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (995 ratings)

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The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide  By  cover art

The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide

By: John Sonmez
Narrated by: John Sonmez
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Publisher's summary

Technical knowledge alone isn't enough - increase your software development income by leveling up your soft skills

Early in his software developer career, John Sonmez discovered that technical knowledge alone isn't enough to break through to the next income level - developers need "soft skills" like the ability to learn new technologies just in time, communicate clearly with management and consulting clients, negotiate a fair hourly rate, and unite teammates and coworkers in working toward a common goal.

What you will learn in this book:

  • How to systematically find and fill the gaps in your technical knowledge so you can face any new challenge with confidence
  • Should you take contract work - or hold out for a salaried position? Which will earn you more, what the tradeoffs are, and how your personality should sway your choice
  • Should you learn JavaScript, C#, Python, C++? How to decide which programming language you should master first
  • Ever notice how every job ever posted requires "3-5 years of experience," which you don't have? Simple solution for this frustrating chicken-and-egg problem that allows you to build legitimate job experience while you learn to code
  • Is earning a computer science degree a necessity - or a total waste of time? How to get a college degree with maximum credibility and minimum debt
  • Coding boot camps - some are great, some are complete scams. How to tell the difference so you don't find yourself cheated out of $10,000
  • Interviewer tells you, "Dress code is casual around here - the development team wears flipflops." What should you wear?
  • How do you deal with a boss who's a micromanager. Plus how helping your manager with his goals can make you the MVP of your team
  • The technical skills that every professional developer must have - but no one teaches you (most developers are missing some critical pieces, they don't teach this stuff in college, you're expected to just "know" this)
©2017 Simple Programmer, LLC (P)2017 Simple Programmer, LLC

Featured Article: The Best Audiobooks and Podcasts for Programmers


If you’re looking for the best audiobooks and podcasts about programming, you might be a programmer looking for resources and new perspectives to expand your knowledge. Or maybe you’re a newcomer still wondering if it's even possible to learn how to program from a book. Whether you’re brand new to programming or you’ve been fluent in Python, Java, C#, and the like for years, there are tons of great audio resources available to help you hone your skills.

What listeners say about The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide

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The Complete Bro-grammer's Career Guide

It's nice to have all of this information condensed in one source but it is all very superficial and nothing that you can't find on free blogs and message boards. Most of it is just common sense and he comes off as really arrogant and pushes his other books on you. What really lost my interest was when he compared selling yourself for an internship to imposing yourself on women to get a date. He claims to be a dating coach (what can't this douche do?) and says that all women are secretly wanting you to impose on them, that they secretly want you even though they say no. As a single women with lots of female friends I can assure you that if a woman gives you signals that she's not interested, she is definitely not interested. This belief perpetuates rape culture and is completely false. Women are not fickle mysterious creatures. We are straight forward human beings if you listen and pay attention. Yes, if you are super pushy and a narcissist that doesn't take no for an answer then eventually you will find someone who will give in. I would not recommend this asshole approach for selling yourself as a future employee or as a romantic partner.

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40 people found this helpful

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Good read for developers of all experience

I've come to almost the same conclusions when it comes to software development and dealing with people. To name a few:
- your first programming language is not that important
- learning next programming languages is way easier than 1st one
- it's worth invensting in yourself (education, clothes, etc.)
- people judge you by the way you dress (whether you like it or not)
- soft skills are really important for software developers
- in order to advance your career you cannot be "quiet"

What I've learnt:
- it's a good idea to become more popular (blogs, podcasts, talks)
- starting realistic, simple project and sticking to it is better than having many complicated ideas that will never get finished
- as a boss/leader you shouldn't be micromanaging employees

What I didn't like:
- I disagree that it's really that important to have CV prepared by professional company
- I'm not sure about making friends with HR before interview and buying them lunch. In company that I work for all the employees had to go through training that was really against such behaviours
- a little bit too much promotion in my opinion. Author was really honest about this in the book, but I still feel that a lot of time was spent on marketing.

To sum up I've really appreciated this book and I sincerely recommend it.

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36 people found this helpful

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Less Learning, and More Self-Help

This book is a collection of stories that have nothing to do with the practical application of how to's and where to start. It's more about you can do it and don't give up. Waste of money, grab code complete instead.

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Gimmicky and obnoxious

Had such a hard time getting past all the egomaniac self promotion so I figured I should go check out the links he is spending half the audio promoting... wow what a rude awakening it was to see what kind of creep he is with his “bulldog mindset”. I have returned the book. No way I want advice from this kind of person.

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16 people found this helpful

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Too much promotion

I will not purchase any other products from simpleprogrammer. There may be some good info here but if I make a purchase of a product I don’t expect advertisement throughout for other products.

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not worth your time

very repetitive and low quality information. This book is garbage. You can find all this information on just about any internet search, save yourself the time in listening to this and practice coding instead.

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15 people found this helpful

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Excellent! Highly recommended audiobook!

I am a novice programmer, with almost a year of experience in Autonomous Driving Systems Manual Test Engineering/ QA. This audio book is great! The information John provided hit every point; answering a number of questions I had as I plan my learning path in python programming and preparing my career in development. I was even able to use John’s teachings in the operations of my tattoo studio, and project management for my content writing business. I am very entrepreneurial; this book and John’s information filled website helped me fill some holes with many questions answered! I have recommended this book to a number of tech savvy comrades.

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9 people found this helpful

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Wow

Got through 4 chapters and the guy was still talking about himself. Classic narcissist that is just promoting his material like a late televangelist. Too much hand holding and not getting to the substance. Look elsewhere to learn about how to improve your career in this field.

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Rambling with product placement ads throughout

Wanted to like this title, but did not.

Reasons why:

1) Other products promoted throughout the book. This isn't smart marketing; it's bad writing.
2) Website links read throughout. Add a PDF download like everyone else.
3) Rambling. Why use 10 words when you can 100? That's why this book is so long. Watch his youtube channel before you buy. This is how the entire book reads. The 'content bro' (volume over substance) approach to things permiates.

There's some useful information in here, but this could probably be a 6-hour title without losing much.

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  • M
  • 11-02-18

Reads like self-help or "get rich quick", non-stop

There may be good content eventually, but there's so much fluff, with the author constantly breaking from general comments about software development to try to convince you about how the book will eventually be useful. It reads like a "get rich quick" scheme. Well over an hour into the reading, the author is still telling the listener about his links online and shameless self promoting. The first HALF HOUR of the book is dedicated to legitimizing the book to you. It sounds absurd but there's only as much content as there is self promoting and attempts to convince the reader that the book is useful and helpful.

I just can't keep listening to this. It's so amateurish. It reads like a marketing major drop-out read a real book about the software development industry and then tried to "tell you how it is" in an infomercial style. The book content reads like an ad for itself with the author constantly attempting to legitimize the book, WITHIN the book. The author makes cliche naive comments like that he would "learn" a programming language in a couple of weeks and then immediately start teaching "students" about that language. How would you like to be taught by someone who only knew a language for "a couple of weeks". The author may actually profess in many of these concepts but it's hard to believe him because of the repetative, non-stop sales technique he tries to use.

The author is attempting to prey on people that are desperate to break into software development that likely know little about it. If you know anything about software development, you're better off reading something else. But then again if you know nothing about software development, you are also better off reading literally anything else.

The bottom line is a message to the author: let the content speak for itself. I get that you're trying to sell yourself or build a "brand" or something, but the best way to do that is to eventually, at some point, actually have good content, and then let your content speak for itself.

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7 people found this helpful