Free to develop
a career of
your own
Transform your career and life with expert coaching for professionals in all software development roles
Discover how 25+ years of industry experience can unlock your full potential in the tech world.
If you know your career in software development could be better, but you’re having trouble finding the way – I’ve been there. Technology professionals take pride in the knowledge we worked so hard to acquire. So getting help from another person can almost feel wrong somehow. Especially considering our “do-it-yourself” approach to work. Unfortunately, without an outside perspective it’s easy to get stuck and stop growing. Corporate culture on many software development teams can shame people who openly ask for help. But most other professions do the opposite. Their top performers have coaches.
The software industry is lacking when it comes to truly powerful career coaching. Coaching that leads you to those “aha!” moments, where you come to insights that shift your perspective on work – and suddenly everything changes. After some crazy circumstances I’ll get into later, I decided to become the coach I wish I had. After 5 years of doing this, I’ve been overwhelmed with demand once the word got out. As clients work with me, they often say the same thing. They wish this style of coaching was something they knew about much earlier! I know it may be hard to believe now, but stumbling on this page may change the future of your career – and your life.
Maybe your motivation for getting into tech was purely for the fun of it. Or the promise of a big salary and the lifestyle it can provide drew you in. Regardless, you’ve probably seen other people “get ahead”, and can’t help but compare your career to theirs. It’s totally normal to want growth in your career. But chasing other people’s career path is not the way to do it. You don’t want to reach the top of a mountain, only to see the peak you should have climbed – is across another valley. I treat you as a unique individual, and help you make sure you’re on the best path for you alone.
What powerful career coaching actually is
The most important thing to understand first – is what it can (and can’t) do for you.
Coaching is not therapy. Therapy helps you correct behavioral and psychological problems due to past trauma.
Coaching is not mentoring. Mentoring is where someone guides you toward a goal they’ve already achieved themselves.
Coaching is not consulting. Consulting is where an “expert” (the consultant) gives you the solution to your problems.
Coaching helps you trust your own intuition, reveals your blind spots, and increases your self-confidence so you can achieve your goals.
When someone calls themselves a “coach”, then does everything for you – they’re making you dependent on THEM. A coach should push you a little, to make sure you’re taking steps to be the best version of you possible. They cheer you on and remind you of past successes. They encourage you to fully realize your future potential. And they help you overcome mental barriers, limiting beliefs, and fear.
Hi, I’m Jayme
In case you don’t know my story, I’ve had a pretty wild career in the software industry. As a consultant I got to work closely with many different people, in many different tech job roles. But I suffered from burnout 7 years ago and lost everything. The big money I made, the prestigious companies I worked for, and all my hopes and dreams were shattered. My bank account and stocks were suddenly drained because I couldn’t work.
But on the way back to health, I found a new purpose. I started a YouTube channel called Thriving Technologist (previously Healthy Software Developer). I began to share the mistakes I made, and the difficult truths I found in the software industry. But also how I learned to rise above them. I discovered that many people in tech were suffering, with nobody to guide them.
Now I coach people all over the world, in any tech job role related to software development. I help them grow in a healthy, sustainable way. I believe being successful AND having a life are not mutually exclusive. It just requires making wiser decisions.
Your coach at a glance
How do I coach?
I didn’t start my career intending for this to happen, but I’ve worked with over 20 companies across over 40 software projects. During the first half of my career I was an employee for companies. Then I switched into consulting. At times I’ve been a QA tester, developer, architect, agile coach, and management consultant. You can read about the projects I’ve been on. So when I coach, I do bring a lot of software industry experience into the relationship.
However when you work with me, I am a coach and not a consultant. If I offer tools to help you solve a problem, it’s always with the attitude of helping you be able to do things yourself. Clients who hire me are incredible people who are super smart and capable. What I offer is perspective, encouragement, and digging deep to get to the bottom of problems holding you back from your fullest potential.
I practice active listening, deep probing, neurolinguistic programming, co-active coaching – and using my own intuition to help clients.
My coaching method is not only for developers. I help people in any engineering or management role related to delivering software.
Why integrate tech career and life coaching?
The tech industry is a strange place to have a career. On one hand, you get to work with amazing technology that can change the world. On the other, tech jobs can be some of the most mentally unhealthy environments you can work in. When you do a physical job and get tired, you’ll reach limits of your strength – and be forced to stop. But when you work with your mind and get tired often, it can lead to serious mental health problems. Unfortunately, it’s easy to overlook this until it’s too late.
In the 5 years I’ve been coaching professionals in tech jobs, I’ve seen that nearly every decision we make in our career also impacts our life. Making more money often requires sacrificing work/life balance. Having a bigger impact at a company may take energy out of us that’s harder to give back to our spouse or children.
The coaching I offer considers your whole person. I use a combination of career coaching, and life coaching. I will not help you become a millionaire, if that means you become a deadbeat Dad or Mom who has no relationship with their kids. I will not help you take a job with long hours, without encouraging you to have an exercise routine in place that produces extra energy needed to deal with the stress. I don’t coach just anyone willing to work with me. I coach people who want a great life, healthy relationships, and a lasting legacy more than just a big bank account.
My coaching specialties
First, here’s what I DON’T do. I’m not a recruiter (I don’t find you jobs). I’m not an interview prep coach. I’m not a programming instructor.
I can help you with:
- Finding a clear path to where you should go in your career
- Helping you get unstuck when you’re low on confidence
- Assisting you in articulating your unique value proposition in the market
- Using storytelling and psychology to create a highly effective LinkedIn profile
- Networking with potential employers by industry selection, company matching, and profiling individuals
- Recovering from burnout through rest, mindset adjustments, and learning to set boundaries
- Starting a solo consulting business so you can do high bill rate work for clients
I also offer custom coaching if you’re facing something a little outside the norm. This is only if I feel qualified to actually help.
The benefits of confidential advocacy
The politics at software companies can make it hard to be honest. An advantage to coaching is having a confidential advocate for your success. Being able to speak frankly with me lets you resolve situations that are too sensitive to discuss at work.
Activities that meet you where you are
Depending on what you need during each session, I may:
- Help you create structures to hold you accountable
- Teach you methods for practicing new skills
- Ask you to practice awareness exercises to get rid of bad habits
- Elicit your core values so you see where you’re out of alignment with your work
- Suggest ways to protect yourself from people who can damage your reputation
- Roleplay to prepare you for interactions with coworkers …and more.
I don’t tell you what to do – we uncover the way forward together.
What clients are saying
“Working with Jayme has been a wonderful experience that boosted my confidence tremendously. The nature of the tech hiring process, and dev culture in general, too often led me to question my abilities and self worth.
Minutes into our first session, I realized I wasn’t alone! Before working with Jayme, I was miserable at a dead end job – desperately sending my resume to any job posting I could find. Since then I’ve recalibrated my goals to be in line with who I truly am as a human being. I’m working with great people and enjoying what I do.
Jayme’s positivity and experience in the industry could be helpful for just about anyone. He’s truly honest and will happily tell you what he can and can’t do without any façade. His developer coaching truly changed my life for the better, and I highly recommend it.“
Dan Kurfirst
Frontend Developer
Joe Sak
Senior Developer
“I hired Jayme last year to help me improve as a leading member of my team, and I have to say the results have been phenomenal! Since working with him as my career coach, I’ve demonstrated higher level skills, and became a role model for my team – even my CTO!
I’ve also gotten better at conflict resolution and persuasion, learning how to choose my battles and show up better prepared for high stakes conversations. I’ve learned more about how to advocate for myself with management, and to push my team in a healthy way for higher standards. At every performance review, management considers my contributions to be invaluable.
I’ve also improved my work-life balance. I used to throw myself into the work more than my employer even required of me. But this led to burnout and resentment. Jayme pushed me to put my creative energy into my free time more, and to take regular personal time off. I’ve seen growth in my personal pursuits, such as learning to play guitar.
If you’re on the fence, jump over and hire Jayme today, you will not regret it!”
“My first job out of college was working for a small company. As a result, I didn’t receive much mentorship and was basically trying to find my own path and figure out how to grow as a developer and keep up with industry standards.
When I decided I needed to move forward elsewhere, I was new to the software engineering interview process and wasn’t sure how to properly prepare for it. Jayme reassured me that I wasn’t alone and helped me immensely in these areas.
The process can be grueling, but Jayme helped me develop a better mindset and get to a better work/life balance. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with Jayme again in the future, and would definitely recommend him to anyone else.“
Brendan Williams
Software Engineer
Brian Fitzgerald
Associate VP of Technology
“Let me put it simply: Jayme is the man. The information and guidance he shares, based on his extensive and diversified experience in the world of software, is TRULY NEEDED, and yet very rarely discussed.
Through his work, both in the form of recorded content and custom sessions, he shines a very important light on how to have a healthy career, healthy work life balance, healthy mindset, and how to be a true professional in the world of software development.
In our one-on-one coaching sessions, Jayme shared a lot of value in helping me find my personal areas of strength and encouraging me to lean into them, letting those strengths be a distinguishing factor in my craft as a software professional. That’s been a huge help
I’m so glad I stumbled upon Jayme’s content when searching “programmer burnout” one day on YouTube, because I’ve been appreciating Jayme as a trusted resource and mentor ever since!“
“If you’re feeling stuck in your career, you’ll need to hire a coach sooner or later. Anyone doing development needs to break his elitist mental barriers.
Recharging & accumulating perspective takes a lot of time. No matter what level you’re at in your career, eventually you reach a plateau from which you’ll either go up – or down.
Hiring Jayme as my coach has helped me cut that plateau / recharge period in half & go upwards – call it a career-hack if you will.“
Robert Rusu
CTO / Lead Developer
Matt Shelley
Senior Software Engineer
“I came to Jayme ten years into my career after feeling burned out, needing to take a long break away from the industry. I had seen his videos on developer burnout for the past few years, and felt like he really understood the troubles with burnout as a programmer. I was happy to see he offered career coaching, too.
Jayme helped me realize that I had taken on too much responsibility, sacrificed too much of my life outside of work, and grown addicted to learning – all because I was trying to climb higher and higher. He encouraged me to consider all sorts of roles, including Engineering Manager, Staff Engineer, and even stepping back to Senior Software Engineer.
Ultimately, Jayme helped me realize that I was much happier as a Senior Software Engineer where I had the right amount of responsibility, with a good income and healthy work / life balance. Our conversations saved me a lot of struggle working in a role that didn’t fit me.
I would highly recommend Jayme’s career coaching. It’s very rare to find someone who has gone through burnout, and has many, many years of developer experience. He really understands the challenges of developers who have been in the industry for quite a while. I am very happy with how much Jayme has helped me.”
Career Coaching Packages
Achieve common outcomes many tech professionals want from their career.
DevMap
DevQuest
DevRecovery
SoloDev
Career Coaching Bundles
Get help with your unique challenges not covered by the coaching packages above.
Gold Bundle
Platinum Bundle
Using and attending sessions
Each session you attend will reduce those remaining in your coaching package or bundle by one, until they’re all used up.
Upon purchase of any coaching, you’ll immediately receive an email with a unique link you can click to easily book your sessions online.
Jayme is available for sessions from 1:00pm – 5:00pm Central Standard Time (CST), Tuesday through Thursday.
Learn more about coaching packages and bundles in the terms & conditions of coaching.
Apply for software development career and life coaching
Fill out an application to find out whether my coaching is right for you. This shows me where you are – and where you want to go.
After I review your application, I’ll let you know whether I believe I can help you.
If so, I’ll email you a link to book a consultation with me. The consultation requires a small deposit you can read about here.
Assuming we’re both feeling great about working together, I’ll recommend a coaching package or bundle to consider.
NOTE: I’m currently only coaching professionals with a minimum of 5 years of experience due to high demand.
Submit your application for coaching below:
As of 6/3/2024, I have 2 openings for new clients.
Frequently asked questions
It’s hard to be completely honest with people employed by the same company as you. There’s competition for pay and promotions, and egos get in the way. I was a little too honest with some coworkers I thought were friends over the years, and let’s just say it didn’t always end well. As your coach, I consider it a privilege to provide confidentiality for you so you have an advocate without these conflicts of interests.
With the opportunity to be honest and vulnerable, you can share challenges you’re having with specific people so you can actually DO something about it. I would often vent to my wife about struggles at work. And while she’d listen to my problems – I couldn’t really expect her to help me through them!
Software development projects and the nature of our work can be incredibly contextual. So it’s likely that what we do together will be specific to a combination of variables that make your situation special. Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, I may offer coaching activities you can do outside of your session (provided as PDF files you’ll print out and complete usually). I may also suggest both physical and online learning resources as necessary.
We’ll be sure to discuss together how realistic it is that you can actually do the activities, or learn from the resources, before you commit to anything. Having been in this industry a long time, I know time is one of the hardest things to find in our career. I want to help you get slack back into your life again, and I wouldn’t be doing a very good job if I overwhelmed you with too much homework!
Getting promoted can be a complicated process, but there are several strategies I’ve used that have worked well for me. How we approach this will depend a lot on how measurable we can make the goals you feel will put you in the best position for promotion, as well as the personalities of the people you work with. I cannot guarantee that you’ll get promoted if you apply my guidance, but I’m confident we can put you in the best position possible to be considered if you’re willing to put the work in.
I’m all too familiar with confronting high pressure leaders. As a neutral advocate for you, I cannot directly get involved in the politics at your company by communicating with others on your project(s). This is why I’ll help you learn consulting strategies as needed to earn respect for your ideas and convince people yourself!.
You can cancel your session up to 24 hours in advance. If you cancel by then, you’ll be refunded in full.
You may email me about scheduling questions, or to respond to materials I send you. And feel free to discuss any of the content on my blog, YouTube channel, discord, or podcast with me there. I personally invite you be part of our growing community of thriving technologists! You can also find links to all my social media accounts at the bottom of this web page. But please don’t abuse these channels to discuss your case – you should book a session for that. 😊
Some people prefer sharing high level ideas to a big audience. And while it’s fun to get up on stage, make people laugh, and throw ideas around – it takes getting your hands dirty to actually put them into practice. I’ve spent my career doing the hard work needed to implement these ideas one on one with people on real teams.
I’ve given many presentations over my career and they are great tools for making decisions, or raising awareness. But achieving goals and overcoming challenges is done by people working closely together. This is why I offer one-on-one coaching.