I have a stable IT support role with decent hours and people I like. Another company is offering a similar salary, but the team is much smaller and the job would include systems work I barely touch now.
The smaller role looks better for learning, but it also looks like the kind of place where 'broader responsibility' can mean 'everything nobody else owns.'
I am trying to separate useful discomfort from avoidable chaos. What questions would you ask before taking the smaller-company role?
4 replies
Ask who owns support after hours and who covers when the main person is out. Small teams are fine until one absence turns into a pileup.
Ask who owns support after hours and who covers when the main person is out. Small teams are fine until one absence turns into a pileup.
I’d also ask what work is already slipping. If they say “we need someone who can do everything,” that tells you a lot.
Look for the boundary between broad and chaotic. Broad responsibility is good when priorities are clear.
That’s the part I’m stuck on. When you say priorities are clear, do you mean written down, or just something the team already understands?