HYDERABAD: Job hopping, a rather common phenomenon in the ITES industry until last year, of late has fewer techies keen on new job opportunities because of the industry slowdown and ‘illegal layoffs’.
Several mid-level employees are of the opinion that it is wise to stick on to the present company rather than switching, unless there is a concrete alternative.“In the present job market where everything is on a transactional basis, the employee just being a part of the company bills and fewer laws protecting our interests, job hopping is not the route to sustain at least for me,” said Nitin Kambhe (name changed), a team leader in Genpact here.
He feels that opportunities have become scarce and if one wants to make money, then small-scale companies should be their choice. “Big MNCs can give job stability to a certain extent but not the smaller ones,” he added.“Hopping is good for only those in the beginning of their careers where pay is a top priority. People with over 10 years of experience do not do so as they have a lot of personal factors coming into play,” said Dileep Kulkarni, a techie. It is the techies who learn the latest technology tools, frameworks and software to upgrade their skills who are the ones who look for alternative opportunities. “I have been working on the back end as a software debugger for close to four years now and I am learning Big Data analytics in my free time just to switch over and get a better pay hike in other MNCs,” said a techie with United Health Group.
Sundeep Kumar Makthala, global president of Telangana Information Technology Association, observed that the attitude of the tech employees to the concept of job hopping has changed. “Employees are thinking twice before taking a shift and salary is no more a parameter now. People are mostly looking for product-based companies if at all they want to shift,” he said.
Women in the IT industry hop jobs more than men because of demanding work conditions that stagnate job roles to just managerial level, observed a research paper. “An overwhelming percentage of women professionals, family, health and maternity aspects clearly figured on top of the list as the most important reason for women not advancing at the same rate as men in IT industry,” says the finding. “For women, especially after marriage and pregnancy, fringe benefits takes precedence over monetary rewards. Work from home and flexible working hours are desired the most,” said Gopisetty Hemalatha, a research scholar, Osmania University.