5 Tips Every Job-Hunting IT Pro Should Know

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5 Tips Every Job Hunting IT Pro Should Know

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Introduction In April 2014, Wisegate surveyed hundreds of seasoned IT professionals (90% of whom have been in IT for more than ten years), asking questions geared toward learning what they know, what they need to learn, and what they perceive as important in their careers. This survey revealed several extremely interesting findings regarding career changes for IT professionals. As shown in Figure 1, IT professionals definitely see a career change in their future, with two-thirds of them wanting to make the next move in their career within the next two years. While many IT professionals are considering changes, they often don’t know some of the key indicators of whether the company they’re investigating is a good fit for them. By looking at the results of this survey, a revealing picture emerges, giving valuable insights to IT professionals who are considering moving to a different company.

Wisegate Research Report

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Figure 1. "When would you LIKE to make the next move in your career (promotion, role change, etc.)?"

Source: Wisegate, April 2014

Meet the Respondents Wisegate reached out to hundreds of senior-level IT professionals when conducting this survey. First, we gathered information on the industries in which they work, their current roles, and their seniority within the company, all in order to get a sense of who the respondents are. The responses make for a good composite view of IT professionals. Figure 2 shows that a balanced mix of C-level / VP’s, directors, managers, and individual contributors participated in this survey.

Figure 2. "Which of the below most closely matches your current role in IT?"



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Figure 3 shows the proportions at which common industries are represented in this survey, with finance and insurance leading the pack, with manufacturing, health care, and professional/scientific companies making the bulk of other respondents’ employers.

Figure 3. "Which of the following general categories describes the organization you work for?"

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 Figure 4 shows a very mature survey respondent profile, with 90% of replies coming from people who have been in IT more than ten years.

Figure 4. "How many years have you worked in IT / How many years have you worked in your current position?"



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Not surprisingly, given the rapidly-evolving nature of IT, Figure 4 also shows that more than half of the respondents have been in their current position for between one and five years, with a significant 10% having been in their current position for less than a year.

1. Go Big Consider Company Size When Looking at a Job Change While it’s natural and expected to have uncertainty about whether a new job at a different company will be a good fit, this Wisegate survey provides some good clues as to how to narrow down your job search. In general, IT departments have the respect of the companies they serve. In reply to the question, “How seriously do you feel your IT department is taken by the company where you work?” 35% of respondents said, “somewhat seriously;” 37% said “very seriously.” While this general trend is gratifying, drilling down reveals a couple of interesting insights. First, larger companies take IT more seriously than smaller companies do. As shown in Figure 5, 23%—nearly a quarter—of IT pros at smaller companies say that their department is not taken very seriously.

Figure 5. "How seriously do you feel your IT department is taken by the company where you work?" as viewed by company size.



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In larger companies (500+ employees), on the other hand, nearly nobody—a meager 3%—reports IT is not taken very seriously, with 81% of survey respondents saying IT is taken “very” or “somewhat” seriously. This trend continues as company size increases: in companies of 5,000+ employees, the number of respondents who say IT is not taken seriously drops to essentially 0%. The difference in attitude toward IT at smaller companies is great enough that any IT professional considering going to a startup or small company needs to be aware of the likelihood that they may be starting in a company where respect for them and their position is not a given, but must be fought for. While some IT practitioners may find this an interesting opportunity, many will be frustrated at having to prove something that should be obvious to everyone by now.

2. Go Bleeding Edge Company size is not the only strong indicator of how seriously IT is taken. If you are considering moving to a company with a pattern of aggressively adopting new technology and ideas—a “bleeding edge” company—you can have high confidence that the IT department will be taken very seriously. As Figure 6 shows, an extraordinary 83% of survey respondents who say their company is “extremely bleeding-edge” in adopting new ideas and technologies also say their company takes the IT department very seriously. Note that the second-highest “very seriously” response to this question belongs to respondents who indicate their company is “somewhat bleeding-edge” in adopting new ideas and technologies. Considering the high correlation between new idea/technology adoption and whether IT is taken seriously at the company, it would serve IT job hunters well to ask questions of prospective employers that help you get an understanding of how aggressive—or cautious —the company is in adopting new technology. Ask a simple question along the lines of: “Can you tell me about new technology or idea that’s been adopted here recently? What was it, and what steps did you need to go through to put it into effect?” The answer should help you get a good sense of how bleeding-edge the company is in adopting new ideas and technology, which in turn should help you understand how seriously IT is taken by the company.


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Figure 6. "How seriously do you feel your IT department is taken by the company where you work?" as viewed by company adoption of new technology and ideas.


3. Look for Longevity A critical part of career happiness is finding a good match between yourself and the culture of the company. The Wisegate survey has some good news in this respect: Nobody (0%) in the survey said their temperament suited their company culture “extremely poorly,” and 65%—two-thirds, essentially—of survey respondents said their temperament suits the culture of their organization “well” or “extremely well,” as shown in Figure 7. Of course, the “fair” and “poorly” responses to this question show there’s room for improvement, but it is nevertheless encouraging to see that IT professionals feel reasonably “at home” in their work environments.


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Figure 7. "How does your own temperament suit the culture of your organization?"

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 When looking at a prospective new employer, an excellent way to quickly assess how other IT professionals find the work environment is to ask how long the typical employee in the IT department has worked at the company. As Figure 8 shows, both people who have been at the company for less than a year and people who have been at the company for between six and ten years show outsized perception of a healthy company culture. While the very high “extremely healthy” perception of first-year employees (56%) can be attributable to a “new-hire halo” effect, it’s the employees who have been at a company for between six and ten years that are really interesting. 44% of them say their company culture is “somewhat healthy,” 12 points higher than any other group. This makes sense when you consider that this is the group that has been employed by the company long enough to know both the good and bad. The fact that they have remained this long indicates they have a healthy—but not unrealistic—sense of the company culture. With this in mind, be certain to ask about the makeup of your team or department when investigating a company for future employment. How many have just joined? How many have been there for several years? Knowing this will let you know not only whether “churn” (a high rate of employee turnover) is a problem, but also your co-workers’ perception of company culture.


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Figure 8. "How healthy or sick does your company culture feel," broken down by number of years at the company.


4. Get Close to the Business A clear majority—71%—of survey respondents answered “yes” to the question, “Do you know what training you need to move your career in the direction you want?” Following up on this, the survey asked respondents to “choose the three skills and attributes you think would be most worthwhile to move your career forward.” The most-often selected choices, as shown in Figure 9, were:

» Being business savvy

» Influencing others

» Building relationships As the top results in Figure 9 demonstrate, IT professionals know that they need to develop business-relevant skills in order to understand and communicate with the business. In fact, when asked, “If you had to choose, which would you say is more important, business knowledge or technical know-how for you to move forward in your career?” a remarkable 87% of survey respondents chose “business knowledge.”


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Figure 9. Wisegate Survey Question: "Choose the three skills and attributes you think would be most worthwhile for you to focus on to move your career forward."

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 Some questions you should ask a prospective employer, then, are:

» “Does the job I’m considering put me close enough to the ‘business’ side of the company for me to develop my business knowledge?”

» “What kind of opportunities will I have to develop my “soft skills”—understanding business strategy, communicating, negotiating, influencing, leadership, team management, and so forth?”

» “What peers on the business side of the company will I regularly interact with?”

» “In what ways will my position—and my team—affect business strategy?”

» “Does the job I’m considering put me close enough to the ‘business’ side of the company for me to develop your business knowledge?”

More and more, soft skills and business acumen are critical aspects of the IT professional’s career path. Do not take a new job in a company that isolates IT from the business.


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5. Choose a Company That Helps You…The Way You Want to Be Helped When looking for a new job, IT professionals need to take a close look at the company structure of their prospective new employer…but not just to find out whether you’ll be in an organization where you can get your job done. Instead, the Wisegate survey shows that how hierarchical your company is a strong indicator of the kind of help you can get in developing your career, as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10. Wisegate Survey Question: "Who is currently helping you develop your career?" broken down by how hierarchical the respondent's company is.

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 If you are the kind of person who prefers to look for guidance on your own, a company with a flat hierarchy may be your best bet; note that people who indicate they work in “extremely” flat companies in Figure 10 also indicate they find career help outside their


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companies: “mentor,” “executive coach,” and “peer outside the company” are frequently selected, while “manager” and “peer inside my company” are not selected at all. On the other hand, if you prefer to have established career guidance built in to your work, you should look at companies that are more hierarchical. Here, as illustrated in Figure 10, help from management as well as from peers and mentors within the organization is more likely to be an established part of the process. Companies you select should match your learning style.

The Bottom Line It’s tempting to consider at compensation, the health of the hiring company, and the day-to-day responsibilities of the position as the primary criteria for evaluating a position…and of course, these are all important. However, even as demand for IT expertise increases, expectations of highly experienced IT professionals are evolving. In order for your career to stay on track, you of course need to consider what your job at the company will be. More importantly, though, you need to consider—and ask the questions necessary to find out— whether the company has what it takes to be meaningful—in terms of size, technology adoption, affinity between business and IT, and how the company will help you develop.

About the Authors Nikk Gilbert is vice president of Information Technology and CISO for CUNA Mutual Group. You can reach him at [email protected] or @archangelnikk on Twitter. Paul Harjung is the CISO at W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. and can be reached at [email protected]. Elden Nelson is Editor-in-Chief of Wisegate, with responsibilities to provide consistent, high-quality content its Members can use. You can reach Elden at [email protected].


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