< > JAYME • EDWARDS

A HEALTHY CAREER IN
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
3rd Edition
2024

>
Jayme Edwards
Healthy Software Development Career Coach
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Are you feeling overwhelmed by choices

in your tech career?

W
hether you’re a programmer, product manager, in QA, DevOps, a
software architect, or an engineering manager - I think we can all
agree on one thing. Having a career in the software industry can be
overwhelming!

There are hundreds of YouTube channels, podcasts, learning platforms - and a

never-ending list of new technologies and processes to grapple with. The people
we work with are as unpredictable as the future of AI. And somehow we’re also
supposed to find romance, maybe have a family, and retire when it's all over!

In this guide, I'll try to help you see the big picture of your career. Over my 26
years of working in the software industry, I’ve been through several life stages
that shaped how I look at work dramatically. When I look back, I wish that I
understood what really mattered. It sure would have saved me from a lot of
unnecessary pain and suffering! Let’s make sure that doesn't happen to you.

In the pages that follow, I'll share some simple models to help you make sense of
it all. At the end I'll provide a self-evaluation you can take to stay calm, keep
growing, and have a life on the path to reaching your dreams.
-Jayme

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A model for healthy career progression

T
here are plenty of fake gurus online who will sell you the dream of
becoming a millionaire in your 20s. If you're hell bent on freelancing or
starting a company with no experience - go for it. However, I'd like to
suggest an approach that's more realistic. The diagram above depicts three
"steps" representing the major stages of your career from bottom to top.

The bottom step in your career is to acquire the core skills of your job role.
These skills could be things like programming, testing, talking to customers,
writing user stories, managing people, or getting infrastructure setup. These are
just examples depending on the tech job role you work in. Your first several jobs
will mostly be at this step. Acquiring skills over your career never really ends.

The middle step expands your options by learning to influence people. This
is where persuading people, getting them to agree, be motivated, and
understanding how they work together become key to more opportunities.

The top step breaks you out of the corporate ladder to work for yourself.
This could be founding a startup, becoming a consultant, or becoming a
recognized influencer, writer, or speaker as examples.

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How much responsibility are you willing to

take on?

Y
ou can see in this same diagram on the Y axis, that the further in your
career you go, you'll inevitably need to take on more responsibility if
you want to be successful at progressing to higher steps.

A mistake I made earlier in my career, was I wanted more influence but without
taking on more responsibility. The bigger promotions will require you to be
responsible for other people. I didn't really like doing that. So while I did get
promotions, this definitely limited some of my options.

Halfway into my career, I founded a couple startups. Unfortunately I didn't

realize that requires even MORE responsibility. Any time there was a problem
with the business - there was nobody but me to fix it.

Take a moment to ask yourself what "step" you're on in this diagram. Do

you need to acquire more skills? Are you struggling to influence people? Or is it
time to start a business? You should choose next steps in your career based on
which of these stages you're at and what you want - which may be different from
what your current employer is offering...

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A model for evaluating career tradeoffs

T
he first year I began coaching developers, I had a fascinating Zoom call
with an engineer from Google during his free consultation. He turned
the webcam around to show me a whiteboard in his room. He'd drawn a
matrix of rows and columns, with probably 50 different aspects of his career. He
was trying to take them all into account, to decide what to do!

That experience taught me that while working in tech, it's easy to go overboard
with analyzing your career considerations. The model above can really simplify
your decisions.

Every consideration you might be wrestling with in your career can be boiled
down into four categories, or "buckets" of desires. These are:

• Growth - Acquiring new skills

• Impact - Making a difference at your company, or in the world.
• Rewards - Getting opportunities and compensation for your effort.
• Work/Life Balance - The ability to have a life outside of work.

The perfect job, would be one where all four of these desires are fully met. But
for the vast majority of people, they're lacking in one or two categories.

In the following pages, I'll share some common misconceptions about how to
achieve each of these desires. And a few strategies you can use to get them.

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Can you grow in a healthy way and still

have an impact?

M
any universities these days get students excited about the prospect
of going out and changing the world. And with how many problems
there are out there, it's no wonder.

When it comes to our careers, what we usually want is to feel like our work
means something. We want recognition for our work. We want to change the
company we work for in some way, or to change the way customers are helped.
When we're able to do these things, we make a bigger impact.

Maybe you're working in node as a senior developer, and you want your next job
to use rust (growing your skills) as a technical lead (making an impact). Is that
possible in one career move? Sure, anything is. But a more realistic approach
would be to get promoted to a tech lead OR to learn rust - not both at once.

The important point is that growth leads to a bigger impact. If you want a
bigger impact, you've got to grow first by acquiring the necessary skills.
That doesn't mean you can't get a promotion until you've done everything that's
required of it before. It's just a principle to consider so your goals are realistic.

You can accelerate acquiring new skills sometimes by doing it on your personal
time if your current job doesn't offer the opportunity. However, using personal
time for growth reduces your work/life balance. Many people burnout by not
taking this seriously. For a sustainable career you still need to have time and
energy for relationships, hobbies - and personal health.

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Get rewarded by adding more value - not

complexity!

H
ere's a common trap that workers in tech can fall into early in our
careers. We assume that the more difficult and complicated the work
we do is - the more we'll be rewarded.

I fell into this trap too. I'd been working at one company for about 8 years. When
I began looking for a bigger opportunity, I searched for things that seemed more
challenging. Not because I really wanted something harder. Subconsiously, I was
comparing new opportunities to the complexity of my current gig.

A really valuable lesson to learn is this: you're not rewarded by how hard you
work - but by how valuable the work you do is to your company, client, or
customer. You may be the most brilliant machine learning engineer in your
country, but what if the product you work on doesn't utilize machine learning as
much to generate profit? You're better off doing something easier for less pay. If
you're going to do something hard, make sure it impacts the company.

The more valuable the work you do, the more of an impact it has. And the bigger
the impact, the greater the rewards. Rewards can come in the form of money,
promotions, prestige - or just getting to work on really exciting projects.

You'll also face risks to your work/life balance while making an impact. When
you're charging ahead with the carrot of impact dangling in front of you, it's easy
to get blinded by how hard you're working. Just say no to "hustle" culture. You
can still make a big impact without burning out if you set reasonable limits.

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Your career should be fuel for your life -

not the other way around...

T
here's a really simple question you can ask yourself to know if you have
a healthy work/life balance. "Do I have a life outside work"? What does
that really look like though? Well, everyone's life is a bit different. But
here are a few ways to know.

If you spend hours thinking about work, or complaining to friends and family
about it when you're not "on the clock" - you are still working.

If you work remotely and only "work" 6 hours over a 12 hour period
intermingled with other personal responsibilities - you are still working.

With slack and offshore teams, there's more pressure than ever to be able to
work anytime. But you must have continuous, non-interrupted blocks of
time for you personally with zero interference from work, to actually rest.

Growing and making an impact will always place work/life balance at risk. So
learning to set boundaries for when you will stop working, regardless of whether
your tasks are done or not, is super important. So is learning to give yourself
extra time whenever you need to make commitments.

Rewards on the other hand, can fuel your life. If you save 6 months of
expenses from the money you make, and don't live outside your means,
you can quit jobs if they become unsustainable. You can also set boundaries
with managers if they become too pushy, without fear of going homeless.

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When work gets challenging, you need to

have a clear purpose to keep going

T
hough we all begin working primarily to provide for ourselves, as time
goes on, we need a bigger purpose. If our purpose is only to provide for
ourselves and our own needs, a hedonistic life results full of addictions,
emptiness - and resentment towards work.

For people (like me) with religious faith, a purpose for working could be to please
God for the gratitude of being alive.

If you have a family that needs financial support, or friends who are struggling
that you can help, that's also a noble purpose for work.

Hopefully at least part of your purpose for working is to help your employer
succeed, and in turn help their clients or customers. If you're a solopreneur,
freelancer, or startup owner - those clients or customers pay your bills.

Finally some people find a lot of purpose by thinking about how their work
contributes to society. Working for the benefit of the software development
industry itself, which many open source contributors do, is another worthy
purpose.

What are your bigger purposes for working?

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Your career won't be sustainable unless

you maintain personal health

Y
ou've probably heard of the "mind, body, and spirit" way of describing
what we need for personal health. It's not a new idea, but it's something
that's easy to forget. If you want a great career, you won't be of much
use to anyone if you get worn out and neglect your personal health.

Software development jobs require a lot of brain power. If you work too hard
intellectually, you can suffer from other mental challenges like anxiety and
depression even if you aren't predisposed. You need to take care to sometimes
limit new information you take in online, and give your brain regular rest.

To design, write, or deliver software requires a lot of creativity. Creativity

requires energy, just like anything else in your body. If you begin to live a
sedentary life without regular exercise, your creativity and ability to handle stress
will suffer. Getting good sleep and nutrition is the fuel you need to work out.

Finally, not everyone has spiritual faith. But for many of us the question of "why
am I here?" unanswered makes life aimless. Finding gratitude each day for your
life and the opportunity to make a difference in the world is something that
requires a daily reminder. I try to read my Bible every day, and pray before I
make every YouTube video or attend a Zoom call with my coaching clients. It
reminds me that life is a gift that I didn't do anything to deserve.

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Your yearly career path

Consider the software development career models I've shared with you earlier.
Answer the following questions about each model.

Your name: Date:

1. What stage of your career do you want to work on this year? (see pg. 3-4)

Acquring core tech job skills

Expanding my influence

Entrepreneurial pursits

2. Which desires do you need more of in your career? (see pg. 5-8)

Impact

Growth

Rewards

Work/Life Balance

3. What are your primary purposes for working? (see pg. 9)

To please God

To provide for my family and/or friends

To help my employer satisfy their customers or clients

To contribute to the software industry, or society as a whole

4. Which aspects of your personal health are you going to improve? (see pg. 10)

My physical body

My mental state

My spiritual walk, or to find peace with existence

Print out this page when you're done. Refer to it as a reminder of your current
path this year when big decisions come up - or things get confusing.

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 < > JAYME • EDWARDS

T
here's so much more I could say about your career! The biggest thing to
remember is it's a marathon - not a sprint. Whenever somebody tries to
sell you on making a ton of money fast, or getting promoted when you
know deep down inside you aren't ready - ask what's in it for THEM.

If instead you pace yourself, make moves when you're ready, and be smart
about your personal health, relationships, and money - you can be a blessing to
the people around you instead of a burden.

These are the things I wish someone told me 26 years ago when I started on my
journey! They may not be as exciting as false promises, but if you're willing to put
in the work and be patient with yourself - you can succeed at work AND have a
life while doing it.

I hope this guide helped you find some peace in your personal direction. If you
ever need help, feel free to book a free consultation with me for career coaching.
My mission is to help tech professionals have a sustainable career, and become
tomorrow's great leaders. Hopefully burnout becomes less common, and our
industry gets a better reputation for treating people like humans - not robots.

Stay healthy,

-Jayme

This guide is Copyright © 2024 and belongs to Jayme Edwards Coaching

Please send people to my homepage for a copy!

Basically, don't be a jerk and sell or repurpose this content. Thank you. :)

This humble little guide is dedicated to my wife, who put up with too many angry outbursts about fake
agile, my kids who should have seen their dad way more when they were little, and all the men and
women who had the patience to teach me about being a better software developer - and person.

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