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WHEN YOU SHOULD STAY
Job Hopping
In
contrast to those described in Part One of this
article for whom inertia is a driving force, others
have a natural preference for just the opposite.
These individuals prefer change and variety over
routines and they excel at adapting to new
information and spotting new trends. They are more
likely to embrace entrepreneurial opportunities. The
downside of these positive attributes however is
that these individuals are not as good at following
through and sticking with things as they are at
starting new things. When the going gets tough or
the job gets routine or boring, they like to move
on.
These
individuals may become job hoppers - a term loosely
defined as one who moves around to different jobs
and doesn't stay in one place too long. We're not
referring to workers who freelance or contract for
projects with employers. We're talking about people
who want to work on-staff on an ongoing basis within
an organization.
So,
what's acceptable and what's not when it comes to
frequent job changes? It depends on many factors,
including industry sector. Technology firms and
early-stage companies for example, attract and
embrace employees who have changed jobs more often
than the norm. More traditional companies such as
consumer packaged goods, oil companies or utilities
firms tend to have much longer tenured employees.
Tenures less than a year, even two back to back are
usually not a problem for recent college graduates,
but this would be an obstacle for a mid-career
person with the same situation.
The Employer's Perspective on Stability
Employers
want to hire people that will stay a while at their
company. It is expensive and disruptive to fill
vacant positions. They also would like to have
talent waiting in the wings to promote people from
within when openings arise. In evaluating your
candidacy, your career history is the best evidence
they have to try to predict how long you might work
for them. If you have a history of short tenures
because you got recruited away for bigger jobs, they
might be impressed, but they have to worry that you
would be easily lured away from them, too.
Employers
also want to know that the experience you claim to
have is solid, not just superficial basics learned
from a quick tour of duty. This becomes more
important as you go up the ranks to higher levels.
They may discount your success in short tenured jobs
because you didn't stay around long enough for the
results to stick. This is true even if one or
several of your short stints is a result of factors
beyond your control such as mergers, financial
downturn, new management, etc.
Stability Capital
When you
work for a substantial period of time for one firm
you build up what I call stability capital. It's
like having stored up goodwill that can carry you
through a rough patch. If, for example, you had a
very long career with one firm before one or maybe
two recent short tenured jobs, your stability
capital from your long-term employer will help to
offset your recent instability in the minds of
prospective employers.
While
having a respectable stint at a brand name employer
won't change the reality of short tenures at other
companies, it can serve to mitigate a potential
employer's negative impression. I can hear someone
defending your candidacy with "She was at Blue Chip
for four years, and we know how high their standards
are - she wouldn't have lasted there even one year
if she hadn't been a good performer".
If you
jumped around a lot early in your career, but you've
been at recent employers for solid stints, your
earlier lack of stability is not likely to be a
problem. Also, if you've made a major career change
and have stability in your new field, earlier
hopping is probably irrelevant. In these cases you
can make an entry on your resume called "Various
positions in retailing" or whatever, and indicate
the overall dates for that period of time, not for
specific employers. You also have the option of
leaving early experience off altogether, but give it
some thought before you do. If the employer feels
like you are hiding something or withholding
relevant information it can work against you.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU DON'T HAVE STABILITY CAPITAL
To gauge
your stability capital and see your job history
through the eyes of a hiring manager or recruiter,
take a pen and in the margin of your resume next to
your dates of employment, write the number of years
you worked at each place. This is something they
really do! Assume you are a reasonable person who
works in your field, write the tenure for each job
in the margin, and listen to how your gut responds
when you look at the data.
If you
lack stability capital and you are currently
employed, most likely your best strategy is to stay
put and build some tenure. If you're ready for new
challenges, perhaps there are other jobs within the
company that are appropriate, or perhaps you can
focus on developing skills or experience on special
projects within your current job that will prepare
you for an eventual move.
If you
lack stability capital and are already in
transition, be sure to invest some time looking at
the underlying reasons for your job changes. Look
for patterns and factors that have contributed to
jobs ending prematurely, as well as the positive
factors that contributed to your staying at jobs
where you worked longer. Write down your key
findings and incorporate them into your job search
plan. Your goal of course is to make better career
decisions going forward, and maximize the likelihood
of staying at your next employer a while. You will
want to perform extra due diligence on your
prospective employers and pull out and review your
career plan before you accept your next job.
You
should have a knock-out resume, chock full of
accomplishments, and you should prepare clear,
concise answers to questions you will inevitably be
asked in interviews about short tenures. If you
stumble on your reasons for leaving jobs and/or
ramble on, you will come across as defensive and
your reasons will sound less credible.
You want
to arrange your resume so that your jobs with the
longest tenures and the employers with the best
reputations are visible - preferably on the first
page. If you had multiple jobs with the same
employer, be sure to give the dates of your overall
employment at that company. If you had an employer
that was acquired by another company and you worked
for the successor company, represent it as one
employer, not as two separate entries.
There are
many creative ways these days to "spin" your work
experience in your resume in a flattering way and
still be honest. Note that in today's employment
world, a resume is a marketing document, not an
official record of your job history. So, within
reason, you can take some liberties. For example, if
you held a job for just a few weeks or months, it's
okay to leave it off your resume.
Consider Becoming A Free Agent
If you
have a history of short job tenures, and your self
analysis shows that a traditional employment
environment doesn't suit you, perhaps you should
consider working for yourself. Many technology and
creative professionals have been working as
independent contractors for decades. Now, virtually
every field has possibilities for professionals to
work in ways that enable you to do what you do best
for clients, and have the independence and
flexibility of working for yourself at the same
time.
Portfolio Careers
Individuals with a wide array of talents and
interests may job hop in search of outlets for their
abilities. The Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation,
an organization that provides aptitude testing
services and researches aptitudes as they relate to
careers, defines an aptitude as a natural talent
that is not influenced by education, training or
socialization. Their research reveals that most jobs
take advantage of three to four aptitudes at most.
Individuals who have five or more high aptitudes
will have trouble finding jobs that fully utilize
all their talents. Hobbies can be a great outlet for
many aptitudes. Another possibility is a "portfolio
career".
Many
professionals today earn a living from multiple jobs
or types of work--what has come to be known in
recent years a portfolio career. If you think about
it, there is some built in job security to a
portfolio career - if one of your income sources
dries up, you will have other sources of revenue.
There may be synergies between the activities, such
as teaching, consulting, and writing books in your
field of expertise. Or they may be unrelated -
accountant by day, wedding photographer on Saturday
nights, with each endeavor utilizing quite different
abilities.
A
NOTE TO HIGH POTENTIALS
From the
employer's perspective, perhaps the most desirable
employees to have, but most challenging to retain,
are those referred to as "high potentials" or
sometimes "high potentials/high performers". Whether
they are hired directly from top universities with
stellar grades, or recruited from industry with big
salaries, the corporation looks to develop them to
be future executives. These bright, ambitious
employees are accustomed to steep learning curves
and a constant stream of new challenges or
assignments as they move up the ladder. But if the
next promotion seems a little too far off, they tend
to head for the door. It's easy for them to do so,
since there is always a good job market for high
potentials.
Does this
profile fit you to some degree? If you fall into
this high potential/high performer category, you may
be tempted to change jobs whenever opportunity
knocks. I have counseled some talented individuals
whose job hopping became a real problem in their job
search - no matter their impressive education,
employer names and potential.
Before
you launch an external job search or consider taking
a job for which you are being recruited, be sure to
consider your options with your current employer.
Sometimes a little patience pays off big. If your
tenure with your current employer is short, you
should have a really good reason to change jobs.
In the
early years of your career your employer may move
you quickly through different positions, and this
affords you excellent experience quickly. As you
move into mid or senior level roles however, try to
stay long enough in a position to get substantive
experience and verifiable results. Sometimes you
learn the most from a job just after the learning
curve has begun to flatten. You may think the job is
done when you've made obvious improvements or solved
key problems in your job. But sometimes solving the
smaller problems, getting that next degree of
improvement, or managing the aftermath of a
transformation, provides equal management
challenges. Savvy employers can see through quick
fixes - they want to know that the success you claim
was also sustainable. It's hard to show this if you
have a history of moving on before the dust has
settled.
TIMING
Timing is
everything they say, and certainly when it comes to
your paycheck, timing can be critically important.
In the ideal world, most of us would prefer to have
a new job in hand before leaving our current
employer. There are obvious advantages to conducting
a job search while you are still employed: a certain
cache to employers, plenty of time to be selective,
and of course steady income. A little less obvious
is that you get access to a lot more jobs over a
longer span of time, instead of being limited by
jobs available during a shorter period of time.
The adage
our parents taught us that it's always easier to get
a job when you have a job, is still pretty good
advice, but it's not as true as it once was. In
their generation, before the restructuring and
downsizing of recent times, employers were quick to
suspect that an unemployed professional had been
fired from his last job. The stigma associated with
being unemployed has diminished significantly in
recent years. Today's employers know that even the
most talented candidates can lose their jobs through
no fault of their own.
Whereas
until recently it was almost unheard of for an
employee in good standing to quit a job without
having another one lined up, it does happen more
frequently today. Let's face it: some jobs are so
demanding that conducting a job search while working
is practically impossible. For those that can afford
to quit, or have been fired or laid off, being able
to conduct a full-time job search has some definite
advantages.
If you
were looking to sell your house, you would want to
let as many potential buyers as possible know about
it, right? While you are employed you typically
cannot announce your availability to the world, and
thus you're at a disadvantage in attracting all
possible employers. With limited time to devote to a
job search, it can be hard for an employed candidate
to generate enough activity and momentum to ensure a
successful search.
If you
choose to resign from a job before lining up your
next one, you will certainly be asked about it on
interviews. A truthful answer such as "As a client
services manager I was available to my clients
virtually around the clock - there was no way I
could effectively look for a new job and do my
current job well at the same time".
ONE FINAL THOUGHT
Whatever
career decisions you make along the way, I hope you
will think about the implications of your decisions
for your longer term career. The best career
strategy is one that gives you the most
qualifications for the type of jobs you would like
to have down the road.
There's
an old Chinese proverb to keep in mind: "The Road to
Success is Always Under Construction". Indeed.
Copyright
2007 Laura Hill
Laura
Hill is founder and managing partner of Careers in
Motion (http://www.cimllc.com),
a career coaching firm based in New York City. She
works with individuals at all levels - from college
graduates to senior executives - in the areas of
career strategy and planning; market positioning;
resume development; job search; interviewing skills;
and negotiations.
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