Career coaching and mentorship for software engineers

We’re an organization of experienced software engineers and engineering leaders who love partnering with engineers to move their careers forward.

As coaches and mentors, we support individuals in advancing to a higher-level software engineer position, helping them move forward beyond their current role.

In an industry that changes faster while investing less in cultivating their engineers’ careers, our Refactor SE coaching and mentorship program is here to help you grow in your engineering skills so that you can achieve the software career you want to have.

Refactor SE is our main coaching program that empowers engineers like you to achieve a promotion to mid-level, senior-level software engineer or to a team lead.

We greatly simplify an otherwise challenging process of achieving a promotion with a meaningful raise.

We help you identify and strengthen just the right engineering skills necessary to achieve your promotion.

We use methodology developed from coaching many engineers over the last 2+ years and developing and leading professional software projects/teams over 17+ years.

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What is software engineer coaching?

We partner with you through conversation to articulate and agree on the direction that you want to head in for our sessions.

Our coaching program Refactor SE specifies a specific outcome (up-skilling + promotion) and has 3 parts to guide our journey, but you always get to say what and why we focus on in every conversation.

Your coach does not provide you with the answers. Instead, they model how to discover what you want next, how to prioritize the next best action to take and encouragement to trust yourself that the answers will come from within as you progress through the program.

We also provide you accountability that’s often missing when trying to achieve your career goals by yourself.

What is software engineer mentorship?

A compliment to coaching, mentorship is where your coach advises you from their many years of experience as an accomplished software engineer. Their goal is to help you navigate and solve particular challenges that come up as you practice new engineering skills or strengthen existing ones.

Mentorship is strategically embedded within the Refactor SE program structure and content itself, while other parts arise dynamically through conversation and during hands-on development sessions.

How do both help me become a better software engineer?

You could go to any professional coach to get general career coaching. However, it’s through years of deep industry experience that our coaches can deliver to you a program specifically designed to make the process of up-skilling and achieving a promotion accelerated and more straightforward.

With a rapidly changing software industry, why leave your professional growth to guesswork when you can have an experienced coach actively partnering with you to achieve career success?

Our coaches have transformed the careers of some remarkable software engineers…

“I am able to come to our sessions seeking advice for my current role or, questions about the industry in general knowing that Jim will offer everything he can with an objective, non-judgemental approach to communication. He draws from years of experience as an engineer, a director, a mentor, and a firm believer in the opportunity for technologists to find meaning in the work that they do. I absolutely recommend working with Jim to everyone looking to better understand their own personal formula for maintaining a feeling of inspiration in their work and for achieving their career goals.”

Caleb Bourg
Senior Software Engineer & Tech Lead
"I felt understood, heard and supported throughout my coaching term. Jim is a very empathetic listener and has a knack for identifying the underlying reason and highlighting it very clearly and very effectively. I always looked forward to our sessions and I knew that I would always learn something new in each one of them. "

Lavanya
Senior Software Engineer
"I just finished a 6 month coaching term with Jim and it has been transformative. His coaching made me both aware and then work through patterns and mindsets that were holding me back professionally. I came into our coaching sessions as a fustrated chemical engineer that wanted to develop a piece of software. I am leaving those sessions as an engineer with a clear understanding of what frustrates me and how I contributed to those frustrations, a clear career vision, and with the tools I need to complete my software project. I would recommend any engineer looking to unlock their full potential work with Jim."

Ray Losch

Engineer & Manager
“It was great having a sounding board to think through some of the biggest decisions of my professional career. I came into coaching with a hunch that I was confused and left with a clear path that I’m proud of and can confidently dive into because I’ve tested the waters with experience and contemplated alternative paths.”

Adam Folta
Associate Software Engineer
"Jim is empathic, calm and a professional guide through my self-exploration. Our coaching sessions helped me to gain new perspectives on my work and see clearer what direction I want to steer in in the future. His thoughtful questions often would get me unstuck, open my eyes to the bigger picture or identify an underlying root cause."

Max
Software Consultant
“Jim is one of the best engineering leaders I’ve worked with. In addition to being an accomplished technologist, he has deep expertise in the ‘soft skills’ category, including things like developing empathy, exerting influence, leadership (formal & informal) and communication skills. These are increasingly critical to be successful in any role today, and Jim’s coaching programs are one of the fastest ways to acquire them. If you’re an engineer looking to upskill or accelerate your career, I encourage you to reach out to him.”

Eric Jensen
Senior Director of Product Management
“Jim is an exceptional career coach. The unbiased and thoughtful advice he has provided to me has been invaluable for my career growth. He listens well, and provides great advice due to his years of experience in the software engineering field. His approach to coaching is very structured but yet personal at the same time. Working with Jim has allowed me to identify what I truly want from my career while creating a personalized plan to work toward my goals. It doesn’t matter whether you are just out of college or have 20 years of experience as a software engineer, I would recommend Jim to any software engineer seeking to reach their full potential.”

Nicholas Connors
Senior Software Engineer & Tech Lead
“Jim has helped me progress in my career by helping me to get clear on my goals and determining the best strategies towards making progress. It has been incredibly helpful to have such a knowledgeable person to get feedback from. I recommend Jim as a coach for anyone looking to improve or work towards a promotion.”

Brandon Sotiroff
Software Engineer
"I have recently finished my 3 month coaching program with Jim - he's a great engineer and leader with deep knowledge on soft skills and a large amount of experience. I feel I have benefited greatly from his guidance. Not only did he help me determine ways in which I can develop myself in order to be a better engineer, but also be an effective communicator. I highly recommend Jim as a coach, especially to engineers starting out in their careers who want to clearly set their goals and ways to achieve them as well as how to grow their soft skills that are crucial in advancing their careers."

Borys Tyran
MSc Student in Computer Science & Space Technologies