Playing safe: Techies skip promotions, new positions

Hyderabad: Software professionals are not showing interest in role change or promotions to managerial positions, which requires shifting from the technical work they are doing at present. This is being attributed to uncertainty in the industry due to lay-offs across India over the last three months.

Techies want to be secure in their present position rather than moving into a new or unfamiliar territory, which involves non technical activities like managing and leading a team, checking reports, assessing targets and deadlines etc.

With retrenchments occurring more at mid range level, IT companies are looking to fill the vacant posts with internal promotions. This is a good opportunity for  growth for software professionals with only a few years of experience, but not many are willing to take it.

According to P. Trivikram, HR director in a city IT firm, techies are not willing to move from a position of strength to a new role that is more non-technical and may expose their weaknesses.

“If the techie cannot get along in the new position, he or she does not have the same opportunities outside in other companies, unlike in the past. Hence they are opting to work in their core areas to be safe and secure,” he said.

M. Vidhu Lal, a senior IT professional in the city, pointed out that managerial roles soon become monotonous. Techies like to be challenged with technical work and new problems and finding analytical solutions to them, he stressed.

Y. Kiran Chandra of the Forum for IT Professionals felt that the decision not to shift to new roles at this juncture was a good one. 

“Moving to the project management side means more coordination and management work of on site and off site teams. They will lose their technical skills and core competence shifts to management side. The entire responsibility of deliverables falls on them and hence their posts become vulnerable,” he explained.