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Many Americans are stuck with stagnant wages, but Ben Baxter has scored a 31% pay hike since the end of 2011.
No, the 28-year-old Alabama resident didn't hypnotize his employer into giving him a raise. He didn't master a secret salary negotiating strategy either.
Baxter just felt confident enough about the economy to jump from job to job in order to boost his salary. He's quit six different engineering jobs since February 2013, including two positions since last summer.
"I tend to change jobs about every six to twelve months. It's the best way to increase salary," Baxter told CNNMoney.
You can do that. And you will get increases. The problem is...
-You'll get labeled as a job hopper. Owners and management want people they can train to do the things they do, the way they do them. So, if you are there a year, and jet, it doesn't really pay off for them. And other prospective companies will be wary.
-Typically what you do at different companies changes. Three different companies may all make widgets, but one specializes in Widget A, another Widget B, another Widget C. There may be some crossover. But when you change jobs, you'll typically lose a significant amount of your experience. So, you may be sitting there after 8 years of experience, and 5 different jobs as a jack of a few different trades, mediocre at all. This is a problem because they will expect you to be senior and take on responsibility and train. And if you can't because you've bounced around too much, you're in trouble.
Actually, this guys accomplishment isn't even all that impressive. He had to change jobs six times to get a 31% raise? Keep in mind that this guy is a 28-year old engineer; that is right around the time that most engineers experience their greatest rate of salary growth (you are usually hired pretty cheap right out of school, but as you learn valuable skills, your value to employers grows pretty quickly. Conversely, a guy with 20 years of experience vs. 15 years of experience provides only a very marginal increase in skills).
At that age, I got a better raise then that by changing jobs once; not because I'm anything special, but because its the easiest time to score big raises.
Spending only six months at an engineering job means you provide basically no value to an employer; heck it usually takes that long just to get all the kinks worked out with IT, getting permissions to required workgroups, getting the software you need, etc.
Nothing wrong with job hopping, but unless this guy is providing basically contract help, I think hopping every 6 months is a little too often...
I've got job hopper stamped right on my forehead. Guess what... Nobody cares anymore. They just want people who can do their job efficiently. They also know, when the company no longer has a use for me, they will pitch me like last week's left overs.
The nice thing about job hopping... Trade secrets
Got a problem? I have probably encountered a solution some time in my career. Somebody has to replace these boomers. They are dropping like flies in my profession.
By the way, I didn't job hop for money. I job hopped for experience, which can translate into a better income.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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There are other ways to earn more. In my case, it was two promotions in 3 years, plus annual performance based increases so that I now make 55% more than when I started in 2009 here. A relative went to school at night to get a Masters in two years and increased pay by 45%. There is more risk to the job hopping, it's still considered a negative by most employers, despite the increases in salary. No one wants to hire someone that's only going to stay a short time.
The employers will have no qualm about getting rid of you at first opportunity. You must be the same when it comes to jumping ship.
This is very dependent on the company IMO. We have yet to do any layoffs in the IT sector in our company in the 15 years I've worked for them. Granted, it is a healthcare company, but they have been very stable. We have more people who leave than who get fired.. and firing someone is extremely difficult through the HR process (took us over 8 months to fire someone who blatantly slept at work and listened t earphones during meetings).
For us, when we are interviewing, one of the major things we look at is how long we think (can never be sure of course) that the prospective employee will remain at least with the company.. and preferably in that position. We'e had some "job hoppers" and have passed since the time it takes to get them up to speed with our corporate policies/procedures/infrastructure is important and we don't need to waste that time on someone who is going to jump ship in 6 months for "greener pastures".
This is all good when it works. But when it doesn't, you're screwed as you can't undo being a job hopper. And yea, for a 25-30 year old just starting out, job hopping is somewhat normal as you are looking for different opportunities to gain experience. Try doing that when you are in management.
IMO it is not the responsibility of the individual employee to stay with an organization that pays him/her less than another down the street. Org’s create job hoppers by not paying them or giving them the benefits or providing the environment that will make them stay. And it’s not like they don’t have an opportunity to do that. When someone says they are putting in their notice, that puts the ball in the org’s court – match it, better it, or let them go. When org’s are ready to play ball in order to keep good people, that’s when job hopping will decrease.
And frankly, the job hopping is good for us...the employees. The more people that move, the more that wages will go up. Wage stagnation has been a huge issue right? Moving from job to job will force org’s to compete, thereby driving up salaries for others.
I don’t think hopping is a bad thing.
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