The Manager’s Path walks the reader through the different phases of leadership software engineers encounter in their career, from intern mentor and tech lead to VP and CTO. The book is well written and filled with good advice. I actually first picked it up towards the end of 2024 and I stopped reading right at the point of where I was in my own career. It was somewhat helpful framing tool, but I didn’t think much of it until I picked it up again for completion’s sake in 2026.

Reading through to the end made it clear that the real value and insight comes from reading ahead of your own career. It might not seem relevant to learn about what a director or VP needs to do when you’re a line manager, but it’s important to skate to where the puck is going. You might pick up some insights into your own boss’s job along the way that helps you manage up, too.

I’d recommend this book to anyone working close to tech even a little interested in people management. One section towards the end of the book that I especially enjoyed was disambiguating VP of Engineering from CTO — it helped calibrate my own personal career north star just a bit more.

This book meets my normal criteria for 5 stars — I’m pretty confident I’ll be thinking about it actively in the future. But considering I read it for work rather than pleasure, I’m knocking it down half a star. I didn’t enjoy it the same way I would a novel or a memoir.