Anyone who works in IT will tell you that the work is interesting, the pay is good, and that there is always plenty of work available. The IT industry, unlike most others, has not suffered much as the result of the recession. It is one of the few industries where there has been consistent growth over the past five years.
Those with the right IT skills can easily find a secure and well-paid job in an established firm. However, many choose not to do so; instead, they opt for working for a tech start-up. At these firms, they are often on a relatively low salary, working without benefits, and the possibility that the idea may not work and they lose their job after just a few months. It is a decision, which most not involved in the tech industry find impossible to understand.
A recent survey, by Computer Weekly and Mortimer and Spinks, showed that 18% of IT personnel see working for a tech start up as their ideal job. The same survey showed that 48% of IT specialists had worked at a tech start up at some stage in their career. There are several reasons for this; here we consider the main ones.
A way in
For anyone who works within the IT industry, the experience section of his or her CV is extremely important. No matter how well qualified an IT professional is, finding work without experience is practically impossible. The vast majority of IT jobs like those advertised on http://www.cwjobs.co.uk state that experience is required.
Unfortunately, this creates a bit of a problem because you cannot get a job without prior experience and you cannot get the experience without a job. Most established firms simply will not take the risk of employing a complete rookie, no matter how well qualified they are on paper. However, a start-up will, which is one reason, so many IT professionals have worked for a new tech firm at some stage in their careers.
A chance to make it big
However, that is not the whole story. Working for a tech start up attracts talented IT professionals for other reasons. By nature, IT professionals are driven and ambitious individuals. They need to be this way inclined in order to take themselves through the extensive training necessary to work within the industry and to continue to learn new skills.
Many IT professionals are attracted to tech start-ups because of the chance to be in at the start of something big. They relish the chance to change the way things are done, and to see the shares they were given as part of their package go from being worth pennies to being worth hundreds.
A chance to be creative
However, the most common reason given by IT professionals for wanting to work in a tech start up is the chance to be creative. Tech start-ups are all about new ideas, and new ways of doing things. Programmers, developers, project managers and engineers all get the chance to innovate and to stretch themselves in ways that are just not possible when working for a mainstream firm.