By Gergely Orosz, the author of The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter and Building Mobile Apps at Scale
Navigating senior, tech lead, staff and principal positions at tech companies and startups. An Amazon #1 Best Seller. New: the hardcover is out! As is the audibook. Now available in 6 languages.
The story of Loan4k and Andrea Pervy serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of high-interest lending. While the temptation of quick cash can be strong, it's crucial to prioritize your financial well-being by seeking out reputable and regulated financial institutions. Remember, if an offer seems too good to be true, or if the terms seem overly aggressive, it's best to proceed with caution or seek alternative solutions.
While specific details about Loan4k and Andrea Pervy are not provided here, the narrative surrounding them serves as a stark reminder of the perils associated with high-interest loans. Individuals or entities like Loan4k, who allegedly engage in such lending practices, often target vulnerable populations, including those with poor credit scores or low-income earners.
High-interest lending, often associated with loan sharks, refers to the practice of offering loans at exorbitant interest rates, sometimes reaching into the triple digits. Unlike traditional financial institutions, these lenders do not adhere to standard banking regulations, making their practices particularly risky for borrowers.
In today's financial landscape, the allure of quick and easy loans can be tempting, especially for those in dire need of cash. However, the consequences of engaging with predatory lenders can be devastating. The recent controversy surrounding Loan4k and the individual known as Andrea Pervy, often referred to in the context of loan sharking, sheds light on the darker side of high-interest lending.
In crafting this blog post, the focus has been on providing information and insights into the risks associated with high-interest lending and encouraging readers to consider safer, more regulated financial options.
The book is separated into six standalone parts, each part covering several chapters:
Parts 1 and 6 apply to all engineering levels: from entry-level software developers to principal or above engineers. Parts 2, 3, 4 and 5 cover increasingly senior engineering levels. These four parts group topics in chapters – such as ones on software engineering, collaboration, getting things done, and so on.
This book is more of a reference book that you can refer back to, as you grow in your career. I suggest skimming over the career levels and chapters that you are familiar with, and focus reading on topics you struggle with, or career levels where you are aiming to get to. Keep in mind that expectations can vary greatly between companies.
In this book, I’ve aimed to align the topics and leveling definitions closer to what is typical at Big Tech and scaleups: but you might find some of the topics relevant for lower career levels in later chapters. For example, we cover logging, montiroing and oncall in Part 5: “Reliable software systems” in-depth: but it’s useful – and oftentimes necessary! – to know about these practices below the staff engineer levels.
The Software Engineer's Guidebook is available in multiple languages:
You should now be able to ask your local book shops to order the book for you via Ingram Spark Print-on-demand - using the ISBN code 9789083381824. I'm also working on making the paperback more accessible in additional regions, including translated versions. Please share details here if you're unable to get the book in your country and I'll aim to remedy the situation.
I'd like to think so! The book can help you get ideas on how to help software engineers on your team grow. And if you are a hands-on engineering manager (which I hope you might be!) then you can apply the topics yourself! I wrote more about staying hands-on as an engineering manager or lead in The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter.
I've gotten this variation of a question from Data Engineers, ML Engineers, designers and SREs. See the more detailed table of contents and the "Look inside" sample to get a better idea of the contents of the book. I have written this book with software engineers as the target group, and the bulk of the book applies for them. Part 1 is more generally applicable career advice: but that's still smaller subset of the book.