About So You Want To Be a Tech Lead
So You Want to Be a Tech Lead
by Greg Hatchuk
This ain’t your sanitized LinkedIn fairy tale.
This is the job after the job.
What life really looks like when the title changes, the stakes go up, and you’re suddenly responsible for more than just your own code. The people. The politics. The corporate psychosis. It’s what either breaks you—or builds you into something terrifyingly real. And they sure as hell don’t teach this part in school.
So You Want to Be a Tech Lead isn’t another hug-it-out, politically correct, HR-blessed handbook on how to “inspire cross-functional teams.” This is the unfiltered, blood-smeared, inbox-exploding truth about what happens when you step out of the safe zone of your IDE and into the jungle of tech leadership.
Greg Hatchuk walks you through the minefield that is the modern software career—from keyboard warrior to reluctant tech philosopher—one bite-sized, gut-punching chapter at a time. Expect stories. Wild ones. Expect people—brilliant, broken, egomaniacal, genius, manipulative, inspiring, and confusing all at once. Expect broken systems, and the mental gymnastics it takes to survive them. Expect companies that look the same from the outside but run like completely different animals on the inside.
There’s no magic formula here. Just a straight-shooting, unapologetic look at how to survive, adapt, and maybe even thrive—without becoming the very thing you swore you’d never be.
If you’ve ever wanted to be a tech lead—or already are, and you’re wondering if everyone else is just faking it too—this book hands you the map.
Not the one bought at a store.
The one drawn on a bar napkin at 1 a.m. by someone who actually lived it.
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Author Bio:
Greg Hatchuk started at the bottom, literally—from punching keys in freezing, dimly lit computer rooms to calling shots from sun-drenched, grandiose corporate digs, he’s seen every side of the IT circus. He’s been a computer operator, a software engineer, a tech lead, a manager, a senior manager—man’s had more titles than a LinkedIn influencer with a thesaurus. He’s put in time in government, manufacturing, finance, retail, a tech startup, and even an R&D medical lab.
Greg doesn’t just speak fluent code—he spins stories, too. His writing has been recognized with multiple Honorable Mentions in the prestigious Writer’s Digest competition, which is rad because it proves you can be both left-brained and right-brained without blowing a fuse.
These days, Greg and his wife don’t have a zip code. They roam the planet, surfing time zones like modern-day nomads. One day Da Nang, next day the Dam—wherever there’s strong Wi-Fi and strong coffee, they’re home. Greg doesn’t live anywhere—but he’s got stories from everywhere.