What sounds like a better choice to you?
I am an IT professional that works at a “BIG4″ firm. The morale is low and it is a somewhat backstabbing environment. Employees fight over projects (to have high pressure assignments handed out) and all work more that 55 hours a week.
Recently, I went on vacation and received a call from my director about a class that I hadn’t registered for. Mind you at the time I am in Honduras. On the call he says to me that I should looking for the nearest internet connection to register for this class. It cost me 200 bucks to get to an internet WI-FI location and register for the class. The entire experience ruined my vacation and when I came back to work I was greeted with a verbal reprimand that caused me to leave the office in tears.
I feel that I can’t trust my coworkers. Most of them are male and very chauvinistic, I feel that aI should leave immediately. Everyday, I go into the office and I feel that I am under undue scrutiny.
Should I stay and try to work through the tensions in my professional environment or should I just find another position (preferably out-side of IT) and attempt to find another career path to walk down.
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Tagged with: Sounds • Tensions • Verbal Reprimand
Filed under: Honduras Vacations
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Try looking for another job within your field but in a different environment. Nobody wants to work in a place where there is a lot of backbiting and other stuff going on. Try and find something in your field, but in a more pleasant environment. Sometimes the only way to know about the environment is to try a place out. There are a lot of IT jobs out there, though, so you should be able to find a better environment. Just keep looking until you do. Then turn in a notice and be relieved at what you don’t have to tolerate anymore. Good luck!
You’re not happy with them or the job, so it sounds like it’s time to leave. But DO NOT QUIT before you find another job!
Sometimes the tensions are not worth working through. Those firms are famous burn out places. It may be smarter to cut your losses and move on with your life and career.
If you’re not sure what you want to do, buy or borrow a copy of “What Color Is Your Parachute” (or go to the quarterly 5-day workshop). The 2009 edition is at the stores and on Amazon. It’s full of exercises to help you figure out what you would be happiest doing. Really excellent book – sells something like 20,000 copies a month, and it should!
Having that Big4 job on your resume is something you can leverage! And, employers are always more interested in a job seeker who is employed (employed = “passive” = more desirable, for some reason). So, find a new job before you leave.
The Big4, like most employers these days, are very canny about keeping track of what all employees do on company time and with company assets (like the internet, computer, etc.). As an IT pro, you know what I mean.
Bunch of don’ts to keep from being fired for job hunting:
* Don’t do your resume in the office on your computer.
* Don’t check out a job site from the office going through your employer’s Internet connection and firewall.
* Don’t make a job search phone call from the office.
* Don’t use your company e-mail to send out resumes.
You don’t want to leave any electronic tracks because you can probably be fired for job hunting (it’s disloyal).
So, create or raise your profile on LinkedIn. Don’t indicate that you’re interested in “career opportunities” unless you see (and print!) the profiles of coworkers – or BEST – your boss’s boss, indicating that they are interested in “career opportunities” too.
Recruiters “shop” on LinkedIn all the time, looking for people at the top companies (like a Big4). I’ve met people who got their new job, recruited from the old job via LinkedIn.
Having worked as an IT professional at a Big4 firm is great experience to have in your background and will look wonderful on your resume, particularly when you are looking back on it.
You aren’t obligated to spend your whole life working 55 hours a week, particularly in an environment where you don’t like or trust your boss and co-workers. There really is more to life than that!
Good luck!