Are IT Professionals Better Off when They Return to Their Former Employer? An Employee Perspective on IT Boomerang Careers

ABSTRACTRehiring IT professionals is a valuable strategy to fill vacancies. While recent research has shown why IT professionals will return to a previous employer, we extend this line of inquiry to analyze whether boomerang employees who have returned to a previous employer consider their new situation better than the first time. Drawing on the job characteristics model and belief-update theory, we interviewed 39 boomerang employees working in the IT industry. The results indicate that all of them are more satisfied with their job after returning, yet for different reasons. While the majority (31 IT professionals) evaluate core job characteristics as improved after returning, others report increased job satisfaction, among others, for private reasons. Our main contribution to the growing literature on boomerang IT employees is that the grass is not always greener at other firms.