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The Drawback Of Working For A Small Firm
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There are a lot of elements that come together when a job candidate decides to
accept a job offer: the role and responsibilities, money, location, work hours
- just to name a few. And there's one huge aspect that many tech
professionals may actually overlook when mulling a new job—the opportunity to
move up into the role of an IT decision maker.

That's why, before you even get to the discussion about compensation, you need
to ascertain who is making the IT decisions at your prospective employer. If
it's the CEO that's a clear warning sign that you'll never likely make any tech
decisions, unless the company grows past 200 employees. Firms with 200 or less
employees tend to have the company owner making each and every IT decision.

"In that segment of business there are few decisions made on the IT level.
They're typically made by an individual, such as the CEO or owner, or a group
and IT won't be part of that group," says senior analyst Ed Daugavietis, a
senior analyst with Info-Tech Research Group. A new study from Info-Tech
reports that decision-making for IT department acquisitions in smaller
enterprises rests in the hands of senior, non-IT executives, making the IT
manager's job one of implementing technology rather than directing strategy.

So tech staffers considering new job opportunities need to delve in and find
out exactly who and how IT decisions are made within the company before making
any decision on the opportunity. Ask good interview questions, like who makes
IT purchases? How IT strategy is approached within the enterprise? How much
input tech staff and leaders have on the tech business strategy overall?

"Companies with 200 or more employees usually have a formal IT organization
that does make the decisions. And while smaller companies are good place to
learn from and gain experience, they often don't offer up a management or
advancement track and IT is simply the implementer," says the analyst.

In that latter scenario, an IT role could quickly become frustrating as the
tech team is frozen out of the decision making but expected to deliver on tech
expectations and work with vendors, often with little upfront knowledge of
what's been agreed upon.