The world is full of competent people. But talent and hard work alone does not guarantee success. Here are ways you may be unknowingly killing off your IT career.
1. Complacency
Complacency is a career killer in the fast-paced world of technology. The biggest mistake made by IT professionals is resting on their achievements. They do not update their skills or take up new challenges.
Technology is in a continuous state of flux. Consider the case of a tech wizard of the 90s, with competence in Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, FoxPro, COBOL, and a pre-Internet ecosystem. Likewise, emerging technologies have superseded the red-hot skills of the last decade. Failure to get new skills with time renders even the most competent professionals unemployable.
A 2016 Pew Study estimates two out of every three computer programmers need ongoing training and skills development. If you do not take time to update your skills, you ruin your career. For successful IT professionals, learning and skill updating is a regular process. They keep abreast of industry developments and grab learning opportunities. They commit themselves to new projects, which offer them the opportunity to apply current skills and stay relevant.
Many IT professionals do not distinguish between skills and experience. A professional with, say, five years of experience, but who has been learning, will have more skills than another professional who coasted 10 years in his job.
2. Chasing Status and Position
There is nothing wrong in chasing status or seeking a position. But when it becomes the primary obsession, it becomes counterproductive. Successful IT professionals let their competencies do the talking. But some people try to hide or overcome their incompetence by Indulging in office politics or resorting to manipulations. Resisting change, creating power equations, and hoarding information are all destructive work habits. These habits run counterproductive to the preferred culture of openness and transparency.
3. Lack of Interpersonal Skills
Lack of soft skills is a serious determinant to an IT professionals’ career. Most job adverts place a premium on soft skills. Recruiters value communication skills, creativity, and flexibility to adapt.
A recent iCIMS survey quotes IT recruiters and HR professionals valuing soft skills more than hard skills by 18%. Close to 90% of IT performance issues arise because of interpersonal issues rather than skilled deficiency. Poor soft skills have a debilitating impact on teammates or stakeholders. A team member who does not value camaraderie and growth, or act as a spoke in the wheel, saps the vitality of the firm.
While talent crunch may force enterprises to give leeway to attitude, they rarely do so beyond a point. They let go of employees who stand in the way of team synergy or performance, even at the cost of short-term disruption. No one is indispensable.
4. Not Doing the Job
Doing the job properly, on time, is the basic responsibility of any professional.
Not even the most competent and organized professional gets it right or meets the deadline every single time. The slack may even be wilful, after weeks of hard grind finishing an important project. The problem starts when such slip-ups become the norm.
Employees who do not introspect, or seek clarifications on a poor review harm their career. They shoot themselves in the foot by not taking criticism or feedback and working on it. Some employees even refuse to cooperate with the support mechanism in place. They ignore performance appraisal discussions and avoid training support.
Working harder may not be enough though. Job or performance-related issues are not always the fault of the employee. Poor communication, unclear job requirements, mismanagement, or unrealistic deadlines lead to below-par performance. If you do not move out of such an environment, even after seeing no change for the better, you do serious damage to your career.
5. Job Hopping
Sticking on to an unrewarding job or a horrific work situation damages your career. Failing to make a change when a good opening shows sucks the wind out of one’s sail. But changing too many jobs, with short stints everywhere, is equally damaging.
Mental toughness is as important as technical and interpersonal skills. Hitting the panic button soon is a big career red flag. People will question your trustworthiness and your ability to persevere in crunch situations.
Evaluate whether changing jobs will improve your career or only add to the length of your CV. See if the new job offers something different from the existing job. Recruiters and employers do not hire people who run away from challenges or problems. They look for people who run towards opportunities and a healthy working environment.
6. Failure to Network
Building lasting relationships is the key to developing a successful IT career.
Many tech geeks are introverts. They would spend their life in their cocoon and skip the after-work happy hours or office celebrations. While this may not harm your existing job, networking is indispensable to scale up the professional ladder. Die-hard introverts miss out on a network of like-minded, talented professionals. They also try to do everything on their own, rarely asking for help. At times, such an attitude leads to months of wasted time and effort.
Many professionals do worse and burn bridges. Ending professional relationships can ruin future IT career opportunities. Always seek a compromise. Never exit on a sour note of antagonism.
7. Taking Shortcuts
People take shortcuts. Such short cuts may offer short-term expediency but cause long-term damage.
India’s Ramalinga Raju, former chairman and CEO of Satyam Computer Services, is now in jail for embezzlement and manipulating cash books. He took down what was one of India’s leading IT companies with him.
It does not always take such hard-core criminal activity to damage one’s career. Many executives get into trouble by not complying with rules or regulations. They may ignore the laid-down code of conduct for practical expediency. Such short-term measures may come to haunt them when things go wrong. This holds even if such infractions cause no monetary damage.
On a related note, enterprises value personal integrity and probity. Word gets around in today’s connected world. It is very easy for a potential employer to probe a candidate’s past and get a character and integrity check done.
Many people make costly mistakes that kill their IT careers. A recent survey reveals 69% of people making blunders that damaged their careers. For 31% such blunders cost them a promotion, a raise, and even the job. For 27% it damaged a working relationship. For another 11%, it destroyed their reputation.
