The Virtues of Job Hopping

Connie Shortes

June 16, 2010

The days of lifetime employment are gone (did they ever really exist?) and for the most part, we have adapted as a society to the new rules. There’s not much argument these days that one’s professional loyalty lies with one’s own career, not with one’s employer. Particularly among younger workers, the insecurity of being in between jobs is not as scary as the prospect of stagnation and the risk of falling behind your peers because your skills have become stale. Penelope Trunk’s blog on the virtues of job-hopping is welcome reassurance that your strategy of moving on every 18 months or so could pay off. As an employer, when I look at resumes for an open position for our executive suite company, a resume that shows long job tenure (> 10 years with one company) is actually a concern. My experience supports Trunk’s point--those candidates often do have more difficulty learning a new position and adapting to a new company culture than candidates who have made a two or three job changes in that period of time.

So a history of frequent job changes isn’t necessarily a liability when you are searching for a job, but there are some things you can do to make sure it works in your favor. After all, employers will invest a great deal of time and money recruiting, hiring and training a new employee, and you still have to make the case that you are a good investment. If your move was part of your overall career strategy, add a sentence to that job description indicating why you left that position. If you left because you realized you were not a good fit for the company culture or the position, be prepared to explain in an interview why your strengths were not a good match and how they would be valuable at the position to which you are applying. Most importantly, be prepared to describe what you learned in each position, even the ones that didn’t work out as well as you hoped. Everyone makes mistakes, but being able to explain how you are wiser as a result of your mistakes shows a potential employer something about your maturity and attitude. And of course, describing the sins of your prior employer will quickly land you on the reject pile of any potential employer, so do your best to keep it positive.

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