It has never been easier to get started as a software developer but never harder to get to the top of your career.

We now reached a point where being a top developer gives you 10x to 15x more leverage than being a mediocre one. However, it isn’t easy to get there.

Without a doubt, your career as a software engineer can be highly rewarding if you know the intricacies of navigating it correctly.

But, without a solid career plan in place, all you could turn to is incoherent generic advice that doesn’t fetch you the growth you deserve. With such advice, you usually end up being wishful in your thinking that things will turn out the way you want them to; although that rarely ends up being the case.

I started writing my first lines of code at 12, and I’ve written code for over 25 years now. I worked at Microsoft in India and the US for over a decade before I quit and started working on my startup. I still code at least 8 hours a day.

Over these years, I learned what truly differentiates the true 10x engineers from the rest of the crowd - the ones who companies fight over vs. the ones who fight to get into the companies. Surely, technical skills count, but there is more to it. Having seen this both from an employee side, and an employer/business owner side, I discovered the qualities that 10x engineers develop that help them set themselves truly above the rest of the crowd.

In this detailed guide, disguised as a book, I will explain each of the behaviors and techniques/principles along with lots of practical steps that help you stand out, and grow faster in your career. In today’s world where the value of money is decreasing due to inflation, and career prospects in tech are becoming very lucrative for the top developers, it pays to learn how you can reach the top of your game.

If you merely aspiring to get to the top of your game as a developer, but are not willing to put in the hard work needed to build a solid career plan and execute it, this guide is not for you.

But if you are willing to put in some work, are open to constructive criticism, and are passionate about technology’s role in transforming the world around you, this guide will take you places. The tons of things you will learn about the things you can do, and the things you need to stay away from doing will help you avoid mistakes and make sure you don’t lose out on valuable time that you cannot recover.

Just like my newsletter that you read every week, this guide is heavily opinionated — I believe it’s a good thing. I believe that people usually tend to play nice (esp. when they are already working for a company) to avoid criticism. Then they end up on the fence with a version of “it depends.” When you have a lot of “it depends,” you will end up with a resource that doesn’t help you make any decisions.

This book is different. I have definite opinions on many things based on my own career experiences and lessons in life that I will vouch for; they will help you fine-tune your own career choices. These opinions and wisdom will help you if you own your growth, put in the work, and start viewing it with a long-term perspective.

To stay updated on the book’s launch, simply subscribe to this newsletter. Tentatively, it should be out in Q1-2023.

In this substack, I write about growing as a developer and a career in tech and attaining mastery and faster growth in your role. — If you wish to, you can always connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.