Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Finding a stable job that is full-time and provides health insurance is extremely difficult today so I am very grateful.
It greatly depends on your skill set, experience, education, and where you live. People who I observe that struggle with finding stable employment typically lack in a couple of these areas, but don't have the self-awareness to realize it.
Sometimes you have to find something new to get a raise. I ended up having to leave a place to get a raise, and while I didn't like the interim job, it was a 30% raise over what I had been making previously. I was able to get a slight raise over that when I returned, resulting in around a 35% raise overall from the position I had left at the original job.
I decided I had to leave that job ASAP for a variety of reasons, one was that it was tied very much to possible healthcare reform and I am not sure how long it will be there. While there were aspects of that job that I loved, I was not getting any raises and there is a strong possibility that it could be wiped out at any minute. I talk to people at my new job who say that my old job sounded more interesting/exciting, but what good is that when it might be gone at the drop of a hat?
Spot on! This has been my experience as well. To make more money, especially when you're younger, you MUST jump ship. If not for jumping ship, I would have only received a standard 1-2% COL increase each year with little chance of promotion, because it is difficult to move up internally. If you do the math, at 2% over 10 years, I would have only seen a 20% increase in salary. Meanwhile, my salary has increased 130% because I job hopped every 2-3 years.
All these silly "rules" that people place on themselves and expect others to live by makes little sense to me.
Flip the status quo on its head and live your life how you see fit. You don't see ambitious, successful people with this mindset at all.
I'm an early 50s engineer who has held 17 professional jobs since college (not including blue collar jobs). I've had held great jobs (NASA, Natl Labs, Denver Mint) and not-so-great jobs (Hospitals, Construction, Munitions Factories). However, one thing every one of them has in common...I get bored or exasperated after 2 years...and have either transferred or just resigned. I have no family to support, no health issues and live in cheap apartments. Plus, I have a wee bit of money to carry me.
Right now, I'm thinking of taking the rest of the year off and spend some time up in Colorado with friends.
Any other "bums who moonlight as professionals" out there?
Yes. I'm a job hopper, but I'm on a five year cycle. I didn't realize this until I was old enough to reflect and recognize a pattern. The five year cycle extends beyond the job, and is more of a life pattern. I do this for the some of the same reasons you describe - I need new challenges, repetition of anything marks the death of productivity, and being embedded in a work culture of single-job lifers can be personally draining.
To live like this, one must be a risk taker, and must have the ability to live without debt. Living without debt does not mean, for example, not owning a home, but rather owning it rather than borrowing money to acquire it. This lifestyle might be easier for professionals who continually add to their skill set, as age does not seem to be a barrier in scoring a new job when it takes a younger person ten times longer to achieve the same result.
Another pattern I've recognized is that I'm already angling for the next opportunity at the two to three year mark. I'm at the three year mark in my current job and started on another path, a duality or parallel path of sorts, a year ago. That is, I'm adding to another skill set on the side. In some ways, I have to ask myself if this pattern is about having a Plan B in place, whether it is being an over achiever, or whether it sometimes seems that life is too short to do all the things I want to do.
Some posters are calling themselves job-hoppers for changing jobs every two to five years. I don't consider changing jobs at that rate excessive, especially for someone who's fairly young. The op has apparently been changing jobs consistently every two years for the last several decades. I think that's a little more extreme.
I agree with all the posts (plus the well-known research done on the matter) saying sometimes leaving one job is required for career advancement / significant pay increases. I've experienced this multiple times and had developed the same theory before I had even seen the studies supporting my suspicion.
One example: after becoming well educated plus gaining several years of professional experience and a sought-after skill set, I took a major risk by relocating and starting a new career path. I understood that I'd have to start entry-level at my new company. However I became extremely frustrated when, after I had gained a fair amount of experience and expertise, I was overtly blocked from reaching for a higher-wage career track within the company -- simply due to having started out on the lower wage track. Instead they'd find (slightly) younger workers fresh out of business school, hire them directly into a senior leadership-track, and pay them literally triple what they paid me!
I wasn't even asking to make three times as much money or to have that level of responsibility. I was simply asking for legitimate opportunities to earn my way back towards a comfortable middle-class wage, taking my qualifications, experience, and demonstrated expertise both inside and outside of the company into fair account. They didn't budge, and needless to say, I'm not with that company anymore.
Not to go left with this, but there are religious scriptures that say people are generally least respected by those who know them well. I think this has a lot to do with why companies often refuse to give their current employees adequate consideration for all advancement opportunities. Managers often find it difficult to imagine someone they oversee everyday as a peer. Meanwhile the other company across town is able to look at the worker's qualifications without having any preconceived notions and go, "Wow, you're excellent!" So yeah, I now work for "the other company across town".
Overall I've had four jobs/employers in the last 11 years, including two that I had simultaneously. I think I'm at a healthy middle-ground: I have a consistent enough employment history to demonstrate stability, but not so consistent to appear risk-averse ... or to have been taken advantage of by any of my employers on a long-term basis.
Both my husband and I are IT professionals/software developers. Both are early 40s. I have had 5 jobs since I was 24. He is in his 8th job. Point is, in our line of work it is quite normal. My average time in one job has been 3.5 years, his is closer to 2 years now.
For us it's a combination of growth and more money. In our field you are constantly learning and changing anyway, so shorter tenures are not frowned upon anyway. In fact, a lot of employers like "new blood and fresh perspective".
Quote:
Originally Posted by moneymkt
Job hopping is fine as long as you have a strong network and don't have to apply for jobs as a outsider.
Out of these combined 13 jobs, only one was obtained through a "network". The rest were "apply/interview/offer".
Some posters are calling themselves job-hoppers for changing jobs every two to five years. I don't consider changing jobs at that rate excessive, especially for someone who's fairly young. The op has apparently been changing jobs consistently every two years for the last several decades. I think that's a little more extreme.
I agree with all the posts (plus the well-known research done on the matter) saying sometimes leaving one job is required for career advancement / significant pay increases. I've experienced this multiple times and had developed the same theory before I had even seen the studies supporting my suspicion.
One example: after becoming well educated plus gaining several years of professional experience and a sought-after skill set, I took a major risk by relocating and starting a new career path. I understood that I'd have to start entry-level at my new company. However I became extremely frustrated when, after I had gained a fair amount of experience and expertise, I was overtly blocked from reaching for a higher-wage career track within the company -- simply due to having started out on the lower wage track. Instead they'd find (slightly) younger workers fresh out of business school, hire them directly into a senior leadership-track, and pay them literally triple what they paid me!
I wasn't even asking to make three times as much money or to have that level of responsibility. I was simply asking for legitimate opportunities to earn my way back towards a comfortable middle-class wage, taking my qualifications, experience, and demonstrated expertise both inside and outside of the company into fair account. They didn't budge, and needless to say, I'm not with that company anymore.
Not to go left with this, but there are religious scriptures that say people are generally least respected by those who know them well. I think this has a lot to do with why companies often refuse to give their current employees adequate consideration for all advancement opportunities. Managers often find it difficult to imagine someone they oversee everyday as a peer. Meanwhile the other company across town is able to look at the worker's qualifications without having any preconceived notions and go, "Wow, you're excellent!" So yeah, I now work for "the other company across town".
Overall I've had four jobs/employers in the last 11 years, including two that I had simultaneously. I think I'm at a healthy middle-ground: I have a consistent enough employment history to demonstrate stability, but not so consistent to appear risk-averse ... or to have been taken advantage of by any of my employers on a long-term basis.
There are many reasons for changing jobs, but some people resign from perfectly good jobs not because they are interested in climbing one corporate ladder but because they want to do something completely different.
Four jobs in IT is not the same as four jobs that require completely different CVs. There's nothing risky about resigning from an accounting job with one firm to take a better accounting job at another firm.
I printed off an updated resume a couple weeks ago. I counted 11 jobs since 2004. I know I have worked a few more at least, which I did not bother to list. And for the past 3 years, I have operated and maintained a business on the side. I would consider myself a professional job hopper. It's the fastest way I know to acquire a broad spectrum of experience and knowledge.
People and employers can knock job hoppers all they want, but employers continue to hire me for a reason... I know what I am doing, I am extremely versatile and adaptable, and 100% confident in my abilities. More often than not, I am out there getting the job done in record time, and developing strategies to improve the work environment, and skill level of coworkers. People like having me around, which is why I always leave on good terms with an offer of future employment, if I wish to return.
I printed off an updated resume a couple weeks ago. I counted 11 jobs since 2004. I know I have worked a few more at least, which I did not bother to list. And for the past 3 years, I have operated and maintained a business on the side. I would consider myself a professional job hopper. It's the fastest way I know to acquire a broad spectrum of experience and knowledge.
People and employers can knock job hoppers all they want, but employers continue to hire me for a reason... I know what I am doing, I am extremely versatile and adaptable, and 100% confident in my abilities. More often than not, I am out there getting the job done in record time, and developing strategies to improve the work environment, and skill level of coworkers. People like having me around, which is why I always leave on good terms with an offer of future employment, if I wish to return.
I'm definitely on a five year cycle, and the original poster seems to be on a two year cycle. If you were to say that you were on a cycle, what would it be?
I'm definitely on a five year cycle, and the original poster seems to be on a two year cycle. If you were to say that you were on a cycle, what would it be?
Doing the math, 1 year cycle, though I did have one job where I stayed about 4 years, which was a record. I also worked a couple jobs at a time while attending college. Over the past 4 years, I have changed jobs on a yearly basis. Sometimes, I left sooner if the work environment was too unbearable.
Some work environments that I've worked in are nothing short of inhospitable wastelands. It's a wonder that those kinds of companies could convince anyone to come back at all. If the workers are treated like animals, it's hard to stay for any significant period of time, even if the employer treats me well. I don't like watching people/coworkers suffer.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
