Latest
-
How do I progress without a clear career ladder?
Help! As a new Director, it’s unclear what’s expected of me.
-
Making executive onboarding a smooth journey
Some tips on how to onboard senior leaders and executives with relative ease, based on recent experience.
-
Unconventional paths in tech: Leveraging your strengths to find your place
n this talk, Mitra Raman will take a look at the many paths that engineers can take on their leadership journey.
Editor’s picks
How to find and become a great engineering mentor
Mentoring is a great way to boost your career. Here’s everything you need to know about getting a mentor, and becoming one yourself.
November 4 & 5, 2025
The leadership conference for tech leads and engineering leaders.
Essential reading
Learning to enjoy the career progression journey
Reaching a management position in the tech industry is hard work. It’s important to remember to enjoy the journey and celebrate victories big and small along the way.
On our Career development playlist
Career vectors for technical leaders
Mix and match skills to become the best technical leader that you can be.
Their career: sponsored by you!
Strategies to move from an advisor to an investor in your reports’ careers
How to become a staff+ engineer
What do you need to be able to demonstrate to get promoted to a staff engineer?
The path from Director to CTO: How to follow it, or how to mentor it
This talk is aimed at both aspiring Chief Technology Officers and those who are in a position to mentor future CTOs. Explore the journey from a Director of Engineering role to a CTO, focusing on the skills and experiences needed for this transition and how experienced leaders can guide others on this path.
Essential soft skills you need to succeed as an engineer
There is a big focus on technical expertise in software engineering – but soft skills are equally as important. Which ones are crucial to master and how can you do this?
November 4 & 5, 2025
The leadership conference for tech leads and engineering leaders.
More about Career development
-
Becoming a more self-directing Staff+ individual contributor
Being a Staff+ engineer can leave you feeling overwhelmed with duties that may sometimes fall completely outside of your perceived remit. What practices can mitigate these instances?
-
LeadDev editor’s picks: March 2023
From wrestling with the possibilities of ChatGPT and generative AI tools, to making stronger values for more consistent leadership, February was a thought-provoking month for engineering managers. In no particular order, here are the five articles you need to read on LeadDev.
-
LeadDev editor’s picks: February 2023
From navigating a difficult hiring landscape to techniques for more effective context switching, here are our top five articles from last month to help you get 2023 off to a strong start.
-
Goal planning for the new year and beyond
The new year brings a fresh start and ample opportunity to establish goals. But for some, setting short-term or long-term objectives can be a daunting task.
-
The best of LeadDev 2022
We published more than 240 articles this year from a diverse range of voices to help you become better engineering leaders. Here’s our pick of the ten you must read as we turn into 2023.
-
What makes an effective software engineer?
Being a good software engineer is not necessarily the same as being an effective one. Here, Google’s Addy Osmani identifies the ten key traits of effective software engineers.
-
What is a CTO? Job description, responsibilities, and salary expectations
The chief technology officer is the top of the software engineering career ladder, but there are many routes to reaching the position. Here are the expectations for the role, how to get there, and what you could earn.
-
LeadDev editor’s picks: December 2022
From responding to the risk of layoffs, to why you probably shouldn’t rewrite that code, here are the five articles you absolutely need to read from November on LeadDev.
Top Career development videos
-
Role and Influence: The IC trajectory beyond Staff
As you become an increasingly senior IC, subtle changes in the scope of your role shape the kinds of influence you can have and are expected to have
-
What is senior IC? Flavours of technical leadership
Although the Senior IC ladder is starting to become more defined why aren’t more people talking about this shift, and what does leadership actually look like as Senior IC?
-
There and back again: why I entered and left management
Explore horizontal and diagonal role changes with a career lattice.
-
Career vectors for technical leaders
Mix and match skills to become the best technical leader that you can be.