Expectations and experience: IT jobs in offshore software development and commercial banks in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate job expectations, experience, and met expectations of IT professionals in offshore software development and commercial banks in Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach – For the study, quantitative research methodology was used and data were collected from 342 and 208 IT professionals engaged full-time in offshore software development and commercial banks, respectively, in Sri Lanka. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, paired sample t-test, independent sample t-test, and binary logistic regression were used appropriately for data analysis. Findings – The findings of the study led to identify job expectations, experience, andmet expectations of IT professionals that discriminate between offshore software development and commercial banks. Originality/value – The literature provides evidence that job expectations of IT professionals in offshore software development are different from their counterparts in other comparable occupations. Therefore, the paper argues that sectoral differences in job expectations, experience, and met expectations of IT professionals are worthy of empirical investigation. Although the growth of the services sector has resulted in extensive employment opportunities for IT professionals in South Asia, the details on their job expectations and whether their expectations vary by the business sector remain obscure.