What are some book recommendations for career growth?

For buckets #1 and #2, I highly recommend this: How to Win Friends & Influence People

The reasoning is that earlier-in-career folks tend to have poor social/networking skills as they have prioritized technical skills first. If you're 50+ and still struggling with this, read this book as well. It's truly something that everyone needs, regardless of age or company.

I also recommend Taro's networking masterclass to augment this material: [Masterclass] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech

For folks who are 50+, productivity will be the most important. You'll have less energy but more responsibilities to juggle. It's vital to get more out of your time. For that, I recommend this: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Again, this is something that applies to everyone. If you're a new grad who is disappointed in your ability to get stuff done, read this book.

There are really no skills that a 50+ year old should exclusively have that a new-grad or early FAANG engineer shouldn't or vice-versa. It really depends on context, and a big part of operating at the top tiers of software engineering is having a lot of fundamental skills like I cover here: "What are software engineering fundamentals?"

One of my pipe dreams has been to write a book about career growth (with Alex)! I've learned so much from my engineering career and talking to hundreds (maybe thousands) of people through Taro. But I sadly can't recommend something that doesn't exist 😭

Gergely has a relatively new book, "The Software Engineer's Guidebook". I haven't read it, but most of his writing is well-researched and high quality.