Career Watch: New-job remorse

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New-Job Remorse

If you have taken a new job only to feel within weeks or months that you weren't given a realistic picture of what you would be doing in it, you aren't alone. In a recent survey of new hires, only 51% of the respondents said that they feel very confident that they made the right decision in accepting the job. However, these survey results indicate that they did have high levels of satisfaction in other areas:

• I am satisfied with my job: 84%

• I find personal meaning and fulfillment in my work: 80%

• I feel a sense of loyalty to the organization: 83%

The factor in the hiring process that new hires most often took issue with was the failure to provide an accurate impression of the job, followed by efficiency.

Here are the percentages of new hires who described the hiring process as highly or very highly...

• Favorable: 87%

• Professional: 87%

• Fair: 84%

• Thorough: 80%

• Effective: 78%

• Efficient: 72%

• Realistic: 70%

Source: Development Dimensions International's 2012 survey of 2,372 new hires, 1,764 of whom were located in the U.S., with the rest scattered among 27 other countries.

Ask a Premier 100 IT Leader: Dave Ballai

The CIO at Reed Technology & Information Services answers questions on promising directions for an IT career.

I recently earned a bachelor's degree in computer science. What technology area looks most promising for the future? First, congratulations on investing the time to earn that degree. It is such an important and relevant credential in building your career.

Among many white-hot areas, the one I find most promising is the tremendous push into analytics-driven decision-making generated by the ever-growing availability of big data. Today, we all work in content-rich environments where information sets of almost endless combinations are being developed to deliver strategic value. This suggests a strong need for data scientists, developers, analysts and related technologists who can help organizations build and work with analytics-driven tools.

Of the many other options, one involves a persistently evolving and mission-critical challenge for government and commercial entities: the delivery of high levels of system and data security. We've all seen bad behavior in system intrusions and the effect of that activity, and the problem is unfortunately only growing. This suggests that information and system security professionals will continue to be in demand for many years to come.

After more than 20 years in software development, I think it might be time to move on. What are the hottest areas in IT these days? Twenty years in software development is quite an accomplishment! This suggests that you've watched the evolution of technology and have contributed in ways that should now offer you a very strong method to evaluate your options.

Answering your question requires a bit of understanding of the range of your software-centered skills, so my first reaction is to suggest that you likely already have an answer to the question based on what you enjoy most. I'm inclined to think that the answer to your question should start with an evaluation of your passions first and how they align with real or perceived hot technology areas. While there are plenty of articles emphasizing trends in BYOD, security, predictive analytics, SharePoint, cloud computing, social networking and many more, take the time to consider your interests first. By way of example, in my work with CIOs in the technology community, I'm often asked to help those in transition. The conversation typically starts by asking, "If you could work anywhere or for anyone, where or who might that be?" We then discuss how to move toward that objective. In your case, you should decide whether you're pursuing a technology simply because it's the current fad or because you can really see yourself working with it for the next 20 years.

If you have a question for one of our Premier 100 IT Leaders, send it to askaleader@computerworld.com, and watch for this column each month.

Read more about Management in Computerworld's Management Topic Center.