Staff Engineer

by Will Larson
engineering work reading

Staff Engineer is a concise look at leadership beyond the management track. The book was written by Will Larson who worked at companies such as Stripe or Uber. In around 150 pages he summarizes his view on Staff+ engineering and the other half of the book contains interviews with engineers from other companies. While subjective, many of the points in the book seem to be the general consensus in the industry on what Staff+ engineering should look like. Some chapters contain more substance (e.g. Work on What Matter) while others seemed to me like re-iteration of what I would expect from engineers on any other level or even just decent human beings (Get in the Room and Stay There in particular contains a few points that read to me as don’t be an duchebag).

Notes

Archetypes

Tech Lead

Architect

Solver

Responsibilities

Operating at staff

Info

Title: Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track
Author: Will Larson
ISBN10: 1736417916
ISBN13: 9781736417911