27 Mar IT Pros Make Job-Hopping A Way Of Life
What is going on in IT? You guys don’t seem to want to stay where you are.
A quarter of the 240 IT pros surveyed by CareerBuilder are actively looking for a new job, even though they are already employed. Over 80% of the 1,300 IT pros surveyed by TEKsystems are open to hearing about a new job, even as they say they are happy with their current jobs. On average, according to CareerBuilder, IT pros said they receive 32 job solicitations per week, and a full 77% said they are responding to those solicitations by submitting 10 or more resumes every week.
It is the world’s biggest game of musical chairs.
On one level it makes total sense. While unemployment has been low in IT, wages have not risen as much as you’d expect given the tighter job market. It seems practical and sensible that you’re looking to regain multiple years’ worth of stagnant wages, and possibly lost savings from unemployment, in the wake of the financial crisis.
Money alone isn’t the cause of the endless job-searching. The reasons change depending on whether or not a person is actively dissatisfied with his or her job. According to the CareerBuilder survey, 18% of respondents said they were dissatisfied with their jobs. Of this group, 58% said they were actively looking for a job. For two thirds of these “dissatisfied” respondents (66%), salary was cited as a main reason for leaving; 65% also said they were looking for a new position because they didn’t feel valued by their current employer.
Among the CareerBuilder survey respondents who were not dissatisfied with their jobs, the reasons for hunting are different. Here are the top three factors that respondents who don’t hate their jobs listed as reasons for seeking new IT employment (multiple responses allowed):
• job stability (69%)
• location (64%)
• good culture (60%)
The survey results lead me to conclude that a salary never looks worth it when you are unhappy at work. The results also show that the things that make us happy in a job aren’t actually money related. Salary is fourth on the list of reasons that happy people choose to stay in their jobs, after factors such as liking co-workers, work/life balance, and benefits.