The Great Resignation: Why 80% of Tech Employees are Seeking Alternative Employment

As many as four out of five professionals are considering looking for another job in the next three months, according to a survey from the professional social network Blind. The data may indicate the “Great Resignation” is likely to continue, especially for in-demand tech workers.

But there may be more bad news for some executives looking to keep talent at their company.

The number of professionals who said they had considered looking for another job in the next three months is as high as 95% of survey respondents at Better and PayPal. Indeed, employees at financial services companies, including American Express, Capital One, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, were among the most likely to say they wanted out from their current role.

Large technology companies are not immune from the phenomenon. More than four out of five verified professionals at Amazon, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce polled by Blind might have one foot out the door.

Click here for full CSV of data from the poll.

Professionals taking “concrete steps”

While it may be expected that people on a professional social network would be more open to new career opportunities than others, Blind found many workers had taken concrete steps already and as recently as the last month.

Nearly three out of five professionals (57%) said they had applied for a job in the past month.

“It’s not a ‘Great Resignation,’” said a verified Salesforce professional on Blind. “This is a shift of control to the workers. People are getting better jobs.”

The cloud-computing company professional continued: “It’s more aptly named ‘The Great Career Upgrade.’ People are leaving s—ty jobs for better ones.”

About three out of four workers (74%) answered “yes” when asked by Blind if they had communicated with a recruiter in the last month. Headhunters seemed to have the most success with their job pitches at Amazon, Cisco, Expedia, SAP, VMware and Wayfair—companies whose employees had a higher-than-average response rate than others in Blind’s analysis.

Perhaps more startlingly, nearly half of all professionals (49%) in Blind’s survey said they had interviewed with another company in the last month. Even employees at the juggernauts and popular workplaces Apple, Bloomberg, Google, Facebook-owner Meta, Twitter and Uber have recently sought greener pastures.

Click here for full CSV of data from the poll.

What is a better job?

While the American workforce is diverse, their idea of what makes a better job is almost anything but.

Compensation was the No. 1 answer by an overwhelming majority of professionals. When asked by Blind what was one thing their current company could do to keep them, thousands of professionals responded with everything from stock-based compensation to desires of pay raises. The most common asks were “25%,” “30%,” and even some cheeky respondents who sought a doubling of their salary.

Alternatively, companies looking for an easy way to prevent employee attrition might consider the continued opportunity to work from home or an indefinite delay to return-to-office plans. The demand for “full” or “100%” remote work remains top-of-mind for many workers, even after two years of the public health orders that sent people home and left many workplaces empty.

Other recurring replies to Blind’s survey included the hope for “better benefits,” promotions and other opportunities for professional growth, and work-life balance.

While recently popular, a four-day workweek or company-enforced and paid “recharge” breaks came up rarely.

The bottom line

A majority of workers may be in the job market, especially in the red-hot technology industry. According to a recent survey by Blind, 80% of professionals said they are considering looking for another job in the next three months. Additionally, one half or more have applied for a job, communicated with a recruiter or interviewed with another company in the last month.

Methodology

Blind conducted an online survey of 6,802 verified professionals in the U.S. on its platform from March 2 to 8, 2022, to understand whether employees intend to quit for another job amid the “Great Resignation.”

Survey respondents answered “yes” or “no” to the following questions:

• Are you considering looking for another job in the next three months?
• In the last month, have you applied for a job?
• In the last month, have you communicated with a recruiter?
• In the last month, have you interviewed with another company?

The survey also asked: “If you are considering another job, what is one thing your company could do to keep you?” Blind anonymized and aggregated the responses to the open-ended question in its analysis.

This article is also published on Teamblind's blog