His efforts were not noticed by his peers or his boss. His technical skills were not questioned at all, but they also did not help him to become more influential. He felt there was a secret successful club where he could not come in.
I’m sure you know Jon well. He ought to have been a director or made already loads of cash in a perfect world. Surprise: He’s not. I have my thoughts but for once I have chosen to skip judging and start understanding. I embarked on a quest to shed a light on this mystery.
Why do brilliant IT executives, managers and engineers get stuck in their career?
Almost all those recruiters and HR people with zero experience in IT are the loudest when you search for the answers. Yet, none of their advice worked on Jon.
Hereby I’ve researched a group of Tech Pros. I asked professionals in the middle of their careers critical questions to elicit data in 3 problem domains:
Problem Domains
Is majority satisfied with where they are in their professional lives?
How does their perceived value (which is a direct input to the compensation) correlate with their efforts and current skills?
What are the typical next steps for them, why have not they taken them already?
Research Audience
People who participated to the research have the IT Sector titles such as IT Professional, Senior Software Engineer, Project / Product / Program Manager, Senior System Admin, Service Delivery Director, Cloud Architect, Technology Director / Executive and Chief Technology Officer
They had between 5 and 25 years of experience
70% of them are male and 30% of them are female
Participants were from all over the world