Let Me Help You Get Out Of The Tech Industry
Most of my clients in tech are so eager to get away and find a better work environment.
Sometimes my coaching job involves helping people achieve a better work/life balance, helping them find work in a more fitting sector altogether, or something in between. These days, everyone I see seems to want out of tech. Hearing their analyses of what’s happening across nearly the entire sector*, I don’t blame them one bit!
The tech sector promised a lot to a lot of people and delivered that promise to very few (the vast majority of the few being previously wealthy!) Not only that, it seems to me like the industry delivered said promise to people who either don’t know how to handle leadership in the industry, or people who’ve long since served their purpose and no longer live in the real world, making real world leadership impossible! Tech ceos and other higher ups deliver buzzwords like “innovation” and “disruption” yet no longer live with the needs that actually drive good inventions. Nor can they see what needs to be ‘disrupted’ vs. what most people are perfectly happy with.
In fact, almost everyone I talk to in tech has the same frustration: the employee, an expert in ____ is being ignored along with their colleagues by their CEO, middle manager or boss, who is not an expert in ____ by any means. Said CEO is so out of their depth they might as well be speaking gibberish- but the employee must shut up and get it done. Get what done how? Who knows. Meanwhile an atmosphere of fear keeps everyone silent. Layoffs can happen anywhere, anytime.
The higher ups do not understand how ___employee’s job is done, yet have “ideas” on how to make it go smoothly & be more efficient. Said ideas, however, are basically either impossibilities or are actively impeding the employee’s work. Upward mobility has been halted in many places and wages stagnate, so said employee basically has 0 motivation on all fronts. They are not being heard, nor are they being paid enough to be ok with that. Many people in tech were promised a job so influential or world changing it’d become a crucial part of their identities. Now their sense of self is languishing because they’ve tied it to the wrong thing, and it’s not easy to untangle one’s identity from something, especially job title and wage in our society.
If this is you and you feel stuck in your tech job, we can brainstorm a solution to get you out or at least get you out emotionally. Everyone’s solution is different. You don’t have to leave work to leave it at work, for example. There are lots of different things you can do to wrestle back your sense of identity and personal growth and lots of sectors that can use your skills. Even if it takes longer to leave your current role in this economy you can build an exit strategy with that in mind and build up coping skills in the meantime. There are several tools and hobbies you can try to keep your work self confined to work hours and have a more holistic sense of self your shitty bosses don’t have power over. But we won’t know what works until you try different things and have some feedback to share. You may even find yourself happy somewhere in between leaving your tech job and leaving it emotionally. If the exit plan(s) we draw up leave you open to all possibilities, you’ll be able to tell what feels most ‘right’ for you. Unlike your middle manager or CEO, I’m here to listen and treat you like the expert you are (in this case, on yourself and your life!) You drive this process. You make the big decisions.
Maybe it wasn’t your gut instinct that led you to your current job or tech in general. Maybe it was the promise of financial safety or crucial career skills. Now that this promise has been broken, maybe it’s time to finally listen to yourself. And if it was instinctive when you entered this job, is it still? Or are you actively fighting new intuition(s)?
* I haven’t heard from anyone in biotech yet!
