How to kill your career in IT

The IT industry is a fast-paced world filled with opportunity and potential. But if not approached with the right attitude and knowledge, it can be a career-ending path. In this post, let’s flip it around a bit and look at the best ways to tank your career in IT. If you want to succeed, do the opposite! Here we go.

Relax and get complacent

In the quick-paced world of technology, complacency can quickly worm itself into your career downfall. Just look at the tech we have today compared to just five years ago. People who count on the technology they work with today to hang around for years without developing might be putting themselves at risk. In other words, even the most skilled experts become unemployed if they don't continue to learn new abilities over time.

IT workers regularly update their knowledge and skills, taking advantage of learning opportunities and staying current with industry advancements.

Prioritizing status

Seeking a job or status is perfectly acceptable, but don’t let that be your sole focus. If you’re as good as you think you are, your skills and work will speak for themselves. If you opt to bloat your CV, engage in office politics or even straight-up lie about your experience, you just might end up shooting yourself in the foot.?I’m not saying to not chase promotions, but only do so when you’re sure you can fill the shoes.

Letting ego or personality get in the way

Lack of soft skills is a significant factor that could affect the career of IT workers. In fact, a large number of problems concerning IT productivity are usually caused by interpersonal issues, rather than a lack of skill. If you’re the type who won’t listen to the input of others or think that you could never make a mistake, this could lead to issues. I’m not saying you need to change to be the nicest person in the world, but knowing how to communicate and work with colleagues is paramount for success in the IT field.

Hiding away

Like many other industries, creating long-lasting working relationships and partnerships is a significant part of building a successful and long-term IT career. I don’t mean to be stereotypical, but a reasonable number of people working in IT tend to be more introverted than someone working in sales. It’s easy to lock yourself remotely to work on your code, but it’s also important to mix with your workmates, build friendships, and develop a network. Not only will this raise your profile within the company, but it will also give you a group of people who can help you out when you get in a jam.

Slacking off

The thing with some types of technology is that no one knows exactly how long some things might take, meaning that it’s easy to blur the lines between how long things should take vs how much time is being wasted. It’s normal that we all don’t work every minute of the workday, but if you try to hide behind artificial delivery times too much, someone will eventually notice.

Changing jobs a little too much

If you hate your job and want to move on, that’s of course more than reasonable, but if you change your role and workplace a little too often, this will look like a problem with you, rather than the workplace. Changing employment too frequently, hitting the panic button and jumping ship is a major professional red flag. Future employers may doubt your reliability and capacity to persist under pressure.

Cutting corners

The beautiful thing about coding and creating tech products is that there are many things that others have done for you to build on. However, this is a double-edged sword that can sometimes result in the urge to cut corners to meet tight deadlines. It may be tempting to get things done quickly and easily but taking shortcuts does eventually come back to haunt you. Be as thorough as you can from the beginning, and you can avoid any issues in the future that you’ll have to answer for.