The Staff Engineer's Path

Has a lot of good information about ways to be effective in a role that has no clear definition. The information will definitely apply more to employees of large companies with a diverse range of possible projects for a staff engineer to take on.

I love the definition of Staff Engineer given in this book: the “someone” in “someone should do something.”. Brilliant!

It's not a perfect book, but the reason I gave it so many stars is because other books on this topic have been so much worse. It's extremely difficult to write about this topic in a way that is generic to apply across companies but still easy to understand, and this book does so admirably well. The writing was very repetitive at times and some of the sub topics would have been better left out. But overall absolutely worth reading and I may even read it again in the future after reading some other books on the topic, since many seem to have been getting published in the past 5 years.

Tanya Reilly brings lots of clarity, actionable advice, and guidance to the Staff+ engineer's path in her book The Staff Engineer's Path. It is a well-rounded and practical book teaching you how to grow as an engineer and learn how to bring change in any organization. The content structure is compelling, engages the reader on the initial read, and allows them to reference the material later easily—a definite read.

Tanya Reilly's worldbuilding with the Locator, Topographical, Treasure, and Trail maps feels on-point and helps consolidate the big-picture thinking. Seeing a drawing of a staff engineer building the proverbial bridge to connect gaps between organizations long before a quarterly planning bridge is built sticks with you.

Undoubtedly, The Staff Engineer's Path by Tanya Reilly will get frequently compared to Will Larson's Staff Engineer. While Larson's book has good content, Tanya Reilly's book feels much higher caliber and more thoughtfully structured. Both books do not compete but rather complement each other, although if I had to pick one, I would go for The Staff Engineer's Path.

I highly recommend The Staff Engineer's Path to all software engineers and managers. Even if you're not aspiring to be a Staff+ engineer or are on the management track, the book will build appropriate expectations for what a Staff+ engineer can or should be.