So recently the question was posed to me as to what some deal breakers are in an I.T. job.
When I say deal breakers I mean the “conditions or circumstances that you could absolutely not work under or that would cause you enough difficulty to quit”.
The first thing that comes to mind for most people (including myself) is salary. However, if the salary is realistic this is hardly ever a deal breaker by itself for most people. Additional obstacles most of us face on a regular basis are budget for tools, training, etc. Those are pretty standard difficulties I would think across I.T. organizations and, while they can be deal breakers, typically they are not.
Here are some of the big ones (I believe) in the technology field in no particular order:
- Job titles not fitting job responsibility – Having to show up every morning with no clear direction on what you’re responsible for. It can become a constant state of uncertainty. It’s also very convenient for you to get blamed for taking leadership risks or any risks at all.
- Bad feedback loop – Did I do a good job on that last project? How can I improve? These are questions that are never answered.
- Overworking – Doing two possibly three jobs with no help and/or little guidance. This is compounded when the level of expectation never changes.
- You are put on an island – Nobody else but you have a grasp on a certain technology and they don’t want to learn. This put you in an awkward position of people blaming you while the organization stagnates.
- Micro managers
I don’t think any of these by themselves even would want a person to kick, fight, and scream their way out of their job. However, if you couple a few of them together that’s a recipe for employees to jump ship. Unfortunately, in my experience, this typically happens with your key people first as their talents are valued elsewhere.
